How to tame your Iop
by GuiltyKingOumaShu
Summary: After nearly having drowned once and already having been faced with the harsh reality of Dally's death, Eva realizes that life can be quite short. Not wanting to waste another second beating around the bush, she decides to make that redheaded Iop hers at last, now that she finally has him back. [Tristeva fluff, lemon, uncensored version of "The Beauty and her Beast" - Chapter 8]


_**Greetings. If you came here to ship Tristepin and Evangelyne with me, you have come to the right place, friend. Below this little A/N, you will find a chapter of roughly 43k words full of humor, fluff and a bit of sexiness as well. All of it is dedicated to Tristeva, of course. Before you dig straight in, however, I just want to inform you of something.**_

_**This chapter is part of my Tristeva shipping fic named "The Beauty and her Beast", namely the 8th chapter of it. The reason why I separated it from the main work is as simple as it is stupid. Since this site operates in a really retarded way and auto-hides M rated fics, adding this M-rated chapter to the main story would be like shooting myself into my own leg. It would greatly reduce the entire story's exposure simply for containing one mature chapter and drag the whole fic down with it as a result. To avoid this, I am forced to isolate the mature chapters and hope that my readers will go through the hassle to switch between fics to get the full experience. I am really sorry for the inconvenience, but don't really have an idea how to solve this issue otherwise.**_

_**If you aren't a reader of The Beauty and her Beast (yet), you will have nothing to worry about as that fic is entirely episodic and mostly follows the canon of the animation, meaning most key events will be the same as you remember them with only a few minor tweaks here and there. Knowing of these tweaks will not be necessary to understand this chapter at all, although knowing of them might avoid a few confusing moments whenever I drop a reference to it. An example of a thing I changed in this fic, compared to the canon, was that I let Eva come for Dally when he had gone into his self enforced exile in that desert. She ended up beating some sense into him while being possessed by Rubi, which resulted in her being responsible for the demonic marks/scars on Dally's cheek.**_

_**And that's basically all you really need to know to fully enjoy this chapter. Time-wise it all happens one night after the fall of Rubilaxia. Enjoy.**_

* * *

**How to tame your Iop**

It was nighttime. After having dealt with Rubi's mess called Rubilaxia, the group had aided Count Wagnar with getting his people to the nearest town at which point he had assured them that he could take it from there. Having no reason to doubt the man, they had bid him farewell and decided to return home. However, since the trip could not be made in a single day, they had decided to make camp in a forest once the sun had begun to set. Now everyone was asleep, resting around the burnt-out campfire. Everyone but Eva, that was.

The blonde Cra lied on her back, wide awake, gazing up into the starry sky with her head resting on a pillow formed by her hands. She had tried falling asleep for hours now but found herself not tired at all. And how could she be? Life was going fantastic for her right now, filling her entire being with nothing but pure excitement. After all, she had just gotten Dally back. She felt so happy about that, she could have gotten up this very second and performed cartwheels en masse, felt like climbing the tallest tree around, stretch her hands high into the sky and cheer at the top of her lungs. She was so overflowing with energy, there just was no possibility for her to even think about sleeping right now.

A shame, though, since everyone else was fast asleep by now. She turned to her right to look at her sleeping knight's handsome face. Even in his sleep, he refused to stray far from her side, always snuggling up to her while smiling at something he saw in his dreams. She gently stroked his cheek, careful not to disturb his slumber, realizing that she could probably look at him for hours without ever getting bored of doing so. Still, that would not rid her of all her excessive energy, and given how the night was still young, she would rather just spend all that overflowing power somehow so she could sleep during the rest of it than stay awake all night, only to be tired during daytime.

She sat up, throwing another glance into the gorgeous and cloudless sky above, followed by looking at a couple of fireflies floating around between the trees of the forest, illuminating the darkness. It was such a wonderful night, she realized. Should she go for a quick stroll, perhaps? She smiled at that thought. Sounded like a good idea. And yet, such a beautiful night…it would be a waste to experience it all by herself.

She threw another glance at Dally, sleeping peacefully at her side. Her lips curled up into a guilty smile as she slowly lifted a hand to shake him awake, followed by hastily retracting it and turning around, ears drooping and gaze lowered in shame.

She shouldn't!

But she wanted to…!

The greedy smile returned and her ears began twitching in excitement as her hand began approaching Dally yet again, only to catch it with her other hand and pull it right back again.

And still she shouldn't! It would be very rude of her to wake him for her selfish desire to spend some time with him.

She frowned. But then again, according to Rubilax, he had slept for the majority of these past months, so hadn't he slept enough already as it was?

She nodded determinedly. It's decided. She would wake him.

Her resolve waned. On second thought, let's not.

She pouted. But then again, it wouldn't kill him.

She shook her head in absolute refusal, followed by looking forward dutifully. No meant no! She was a disciplined Cra. She would show restraint.

Her hand found its way to her chin, plotting sinisterly as she looked down on him from the corner of her eye…maybe she could _accidentally_ trip over him? Oh, how _clumsy_ of her.

She grabbed each side of her head and shook it fiercely. What the hell was wrong with her? She was supposed to be the calm and collected one, the one making rational decisions. And yet here she was, torn about whether to selfishly wake her Iop or dealing with her sleeplessness on her own.

"No idea what you are doing there, blondie, but keep doing it. It's strangely entertaining." Rubilax commented, eying her very smugly. He did try to keep his voice down, however.

Eva flinched in surprise and looked down at Dally's waist where Rubi rested inside his sheath.

"You were awake?" She whispered in surprise.

"I don't technically need to sleep. I just tend to do so at night since there is nothing else to do while you bunch waste time sleeping. Imagine my surprise when I sensed something moving and decided to check it out, only to find you doing a very good imitation of Iopish idiocy. Dally-boy is rubbing off on you, I see." He chuckled quietly, causing Eva to frown at him with a shameful blush.

"Oh shut up. I just can't sleep, is all." She told him defensively.

"Then what's the show for? Don't get me wrong, it was funny to watch, but that's not gonna help with insomnia, you know."

"I was just…" She averted her gaze embarrassedly. "…contemplating whether I should ask Dally if he wants to spend some time with me."

He eyed her in a bored manner. "What, that's all? What's the big deal? Just smack that fool and be done with it. You can even use me to prick him awake if you want."

"But he looks so content as he sleeps…wouldn't he be annoyed to be woken up for no reason whatsoever?" She asked him worriedly.

"If it was for no reason, then surely he would. I mean, if Ruel just woke him up in the middle of the night to ask for a glass of water, Percy would probably drag him to the nearest river and throw him into it himself."

The young Cra sighed in disappointment and let her head hang. "I knew it."

"You, on the other hand…" Rubilax continued with an implied shrug. "Seem to be a very good reason to die for, so I assume waking up should be fine as well."

She looked at him in bewilderment, followed by blood rushing straight into her cheeks. He _did_ make a good point. But still…she wouldn't want to trouble Dally with her newfound and girly desires. Who would have thought that someone like _her_ who had been known to only live to fulfill her duty, would end up yearning for romantic walks with her boyfriend at the middle of the night? She was well aware that this was kinda weird and not something she would usually want to do under normal, non-lovey-dovey circumstances. How could she expect him to understand when she herself had trouble doing so? Love was so complicated. Sometimes she wondered why people kept bothering with it so much…

But then she remembered how it made her giddy from excitement all the time and gave her the feeling like she could take on the world with both hands tied behind her back. She realized that she knew perfectly well why people bothered with love, after all.

However, there was no doubt that it made certain things harder. For example, she had never used to care much about the opinion of others about her but, for some reason, she didn't want Dally to think she was awkward or weird. Waking people up to ask them to go on a stroll together was definitely weird, she mused. Yet Eva didn't want to be weird. She wanted to be good company so that this big oaf of hers would stick around, given how much she had come to appreciate his company by now as well.

"You know, I find it ironic you seem to worry so much about bothering him now. Remember how you used to wake him up back when you two had just met?" Rubi said while his eye gleamed in what seemed to be mischievous glee. "You just threw him out of his bed early in the morning, looked down on him coldly and told him he had five minutes to get ready or he would not get to eat breakfast. That was fun."

Eva cringed. "I was like that…?" Gosh, she barely remembered.

"Yup. And Dally-boy sure hated you for it since you didn't seem to treat Yugo or Amalia that way."

"I think I was just expecting more of him at the time. He was the only one besides me who was my age, so I wanted him to take part of the responsibility. I didn't realize at the time that Iops don't work that way. They don't like being ordered around very much…"

"You got that right." Rubi chuckled quietly. "Percy used to grumble all morning about how much of a pain you were and how little he liked your bossy role. Still did everything you said, though, which is impressing. I guess you had that certain thing about you that just made him subconsciously steer, even when he didn't like it."

"He must have had that certain thing about him as well." Eva admitted sheepishly as she hugged her knees and smiled. "I eventually stopped bossing him around so much because of it and he, in turn, ended up being very dependable in his own way."

"Iops are still simple folk. Tell them to gather firewood and they won't do it because they feel like others try to force them to, but merely point out that the firewood is getting scarce and they are the first to volunteer to gather more. It's fascinating at times, really." Rubi pointed out. Iops would make for fine subjects if you ever wanted to research humanity. You could observe them for an entire lifetime and still never comprehend them fully. Less because of their complexity and more because of how little sense they made.

"Dally has a good heart. He wants to help, but if others tell him to, he feels like they are making him work and hogging all the credit for it themselves. He likes receiving praise and gratitude after a job well done, but he can't really claim it all for himself if he was just following orders. I kinda get it. When you are fighting in an army under a general, you become effective, but all your accomplishments tend to become the general's. Yet, for someone like Dally who always wanted to be recognized as a hero, following a general would have made it hard for people to see his heroic feats. It makes surprisingly much sense once you think about it."

"Huh, look at you, having figured him all out already." Rubilax gave himself impressed. "You sure are quick. I have travelled with him for years and never really understood it that way." Well, he never had really tried that much before to understand him, either, to be honest. "Maybe that's why he never wanted me to possess him."

She narrowed her eyes on him knowingly.

"Yeah, or maybe that's because you tended to do bad things once you _did_ possess him."

"Oh, right. That, too." He chuckled. "Good times. But anyway, are you gonna wake this fool or what? The night will be over if you are going to stall for much longer."

She was seen awkwardly scratching the back of her neck while looking away. "Well…"

"Oh, for fuck's sake. You beat that idiot halfway to death in that darn desert and all he did afterwards was giving you two thumbs up in return. How bad could disturbing his slumber be?"

Eva blinked at him and realized that he was right. The thing was, she had known that all along. Deep down, she had not been nervous about Dally's reaction upon waking up but more about the things she was going to do afterwards…

For, you see, Eva had decided it was time for her to tell him how much he meant to her. She had actually wanted to do so ever since he had so selflessly saved her life all those months ago. But, well, he had died afterwards and so she had been left without the chance to ever do so. In all this time in which she had thought him to be dead she had come to regret her inability to express her feelings, that she had never told him just how much she loved him. You could probably imagine how unbelievably grateful she was that she had gotten a second chance now and believe her, she was more than willing to correct her mistake of stalling for too long in the past. The thing was…

Gosh, now that she thought about it, it was just so goddamn embarrassing. The tips of her ears flared up with heat as she closed her eyes and shook her head in a vain attempt to rid herself from these silly thoughts.

One would think it was easy, right? Especially since she already knew he felt the same, so all that's left was basically for her to seal the deal by telling him she loved him as well. Done. The problem was, she had no real idea how she should go at it. There was no doubt that the things Dally made her feel for him were downright wonderful, but what was the best way to put these feelings into words correctly? She knew the fanciest words to describe the sheer beauty of the emotions he had awakened inside her, but what good were those when he wouldn't understand them? When it came to Iops like Dally, a more direct approach might be preferable…

Like looking him deep into the eyes, slowly drawing closer as she would pull him in for a k-

She buried her face in her hands wincing at the mere imagination. She couldn't be that bold! She would die of shame!

And yet…if she was completely honest with herself, she really wanted to do just that. To have those strong arms wrapped around her, holding her close. To have him whisper something cute, yet dumb into her ear so she would giggle at his antics. To have him…

…all to herself.

She blushed at those thoughts as she looked down on her sleeping knight with a small smile. So what if it was embarrassing? It was still what she wanted. She couldn't help but wonder if Iops actually were on to something. Instead of wasting time overthinking simple matters, perhaps it was better to just act on your instincts every now and then. To do just what your heart told you to do, regardless of the possible consequences.

With a determined nod, she decided to do just that by gently shaking her lovely knight awake, whispering:

"Dally. Dally~. Wake up." To her surprise, his eyes shot open moments later, his hand already taking hold of Rubilax as he took a quick glance left and right. It startled her a bit but she was quick to realize it might have just been a reflex upon waking up at night. It could almost be comical at times how someone who occasionally mistook left for right could still have enough foresight to remain vigilant even in his sleep.

"E-Eva?" He eventually recognized her after a brief moment of his eyes adjusting to the faint light the moon provided them with. His eyes scanned the surroundings shortly after as he asked her with an excited smirk. "What's wrong? Are we under attack? Perhaps even outnumbered?" His anticipation for battle was clear as day from the way his eyes sparkled at her. The way she saw it, he was more than ready to crack some skulls. But then again, when wasn't he?

She giggled quietly in amusement but was quick to reassure him of their safety. "Don't worry, we are safe." Ironically enough, the message that would have brought relief upon any sane creature only ended up summoning a grimace of great disappointment on the face of Sir Percedal.

"Really? That's a shame." He put his sword back into its sheath and leaned back on his two arms, sitting next to Eva who could only sigh at that response. Of course she had to fall in love with the only guy alive who was disappointed to not get ambushed in his sleep…but nevermind that now.

"Sorry for waking you up, but I couldn't sleep and so I was wondering…" She averted her gaze slightly as she began fumbling around with her hands awkwardly before eventually finding the courage to face him again in the end. "…if you would want to go on a nightly stroll with me?"

He blinked at her, followed by looking at the woods behind her. Why would she ask this of him in the middle of the night, he wondered? But then a certain idea dawned on him and he was quick to close his eyes and nod understandingly and with a smile. His lovely princess needed his aid and as her knight in shining armor, naturally he would be of service.

"Ah, I see how it is. Don't worry, Eva. I've got you covered." Was all he said as he offered her a goofy grin and a thumbs up, causing her to tilt her head in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

He scratched his cheek and smiled nervously. This time it was for him to avert his gaze in shame as he slowly drew closer to whisper even more quiet than before: "Well, you know…going to the toilet all alone in the dark woods…that can be scary, right? Don't worry, I get it." Well, to be honest, he thought Eva was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but she was still a girl so perhaps even someone as strong as her was getting a bit anxious about this stuff? Not that he minded, though. It was kind of cute, so…

Eva's eyes opened up wide in surprise and shame, followed by grabbing her idiotic knight by his collar and yelling: "Why would I ask y-!" His hand was pressed against her mouth the very next second, preventing her from voicing her irritation at his ridiculous claim while he was desperately trying to calm her down with a finger pressed against his lips.

"Shhh. You are gonna wake the others like that." He gestured at everyone around them with his eyes to make her realize he had a point. She could do little but narrow her eyes down on him in annoyance, waiting for him to remove his hand from her mouth.

"Sometimes I could just strangle you, you know that?" She hissed at him once he eventually let go of her.

"That would have made rescuing me quite red-redu-redi-" He closed his eyes and began snapping his fingers as he tried remembering how that word was actually called.

"Redacted? No…Redundant! Yes, it would have made rescuing me redundant, don't you think?" He objected with a smug smirk, causing her to silently groan and put her head into her hands, shaking it slowly in utter disbelief.

Cra, please give her the strength to endure this Iop of hers.

"Whatever. You are coming with me." She thus decided and grabbed him by the part of his cape that was wrapped around his neck to pull him after her annoyedly as she left the camp. However, as annoyed as she was with him, she still couldn't help but notice how all her earlier nervousness was now gone as well. A smile formed itself on her face soon after. This idiot might not even do it knowingly, but even so, he still ended up helping her out, huh. Before she knew it, her annoyance got blown away as well, thus releasing him from her grasp.

Said Iop used the opportunity to look behind them to see that they were now far enough away from camp to talk normally instead of whispering. Stretching his limbs to shake off the after effects of his slumber, he said: "Well, here we are. A stroll, is it?"

Eve smiled at him. "Yup. Unless you don't want to. I just figured it would be nice spending some time together."

"You figured right." He grinned at her and closed his eyes as he breathed in the fresh night air and allowed his toes to sink into the soft and slightly wet earth beneath him. So many things he hadn't been able to experience back inside of his sword prison. A content sigh escaped his lips. "Being alive is the best."

This made her smirk at him. "You bet it is, so you better refrain from dying from now on, okay?"

"I second this notion. Hauling your soul back from the other side was a pain, you know?" Rubilax felt the need to add with a narrowed down eye.

"Geez, give me a break, Rubi…" The knight was seen massaging the back of his neck awkwardly before focusing his attention back at the still smirking Eva, pushing her back with one finger pressing against her forehead. "And it's not like you are one to talk, nearly drowning on me as you did. I was really worried about you there, you know?"

"I was pretty damn worried myself, actually." She admitted truthfully. "To think I finally managed to bring you back only to nearly drown in a collapsing ruin…"

"Tell me about it." He agreed with a nod before shrugging at her with a small smile. "How about we both try to refrain from dying from now on, eh?"

"Said the guy charging in headfirst all. The. Time." She put her hands on each side of her hips and sighed at him.

"So what? I've got the sharpest pair of eyes in the world to watch my back so isn't it fine?" He told her with his trademark grin as he folded his arms in front of his chest. Eva raised a finger in an attempt to refute him but had to admit that no arguments were willing to form themselves in her mind.

"Fair enough. I suppose that's true." She admitted defeat with a smile as she nodded proudly. She _was_ a damn fine shot. And he had proved many times that he could stand his ground on his own.

"With that being said…" She eventually came closer and hooked her right arm into his left, smiling sweetly. "Shall we get going, my valiant knight?"

Dally blushed slightly at the sudden closeness but returned her smile with an eager one of his own, even humoring her by bowing ever so slightly. "It would be an honor to accompany you, milady."

And with that, they finally began their walk through the forest. At first, Dally was quite vigilant of dangers, assuming, or rather _hoping _that enemies would lurk in a dark and unknown forest so he could heroically protect Eva from them, but in truth, it was a peaceful night with no creature crossing their paths aside from the occasional rodent rustling in the bushes. Heck, it wasn't even that dark with the sky being as clear as it was, allowing the moon and the stars to assist the surrounding fireflies with illuminating their surroundings.

Normally this would have disappointed the redheaded Iop but somehow, he couldn't bring himself to feel all that disheartened about the lack of action. While it may have been true that he was a man who loved participating in a good brawl any time of the day, he could still appreciate the quiet moments in between battles as well. The calm breeze grazing his skin, the soft sound of crickets chirping in the grass…those were nice things, especially since he got to experience them with Eva walking so close to him. She was so close that the pleasant fragrance that surrounded her easily found its way into his nostrils as well. He was far from knowledgeable enough in botany to tell flowers apart…to be honest, they mostly looked the same to him, so he wouldn't be able to tell you which kind of flower exactly she smelled of, but one thing he was still absolutely sure of: It was the sweetest aroma that had ever tickled his nose. While he wasn't known to be someone to pick up flowers on the wayside to take a sniff on them, he felt he would never get enough of smelling this one in particular. It was oddly relaxing…

"Beautiful night, isn't it?" Eva's voice eventually woke him from his trance.

"It really is." He had to agree as he looked up into the sky. "Reminds me of that night we formed the Brotherhood. You couldn't sleep back then, either."

She shuddered involuntarily just from remembering the biting cold back then. "Right. I had many things on my mind back then, too. You helped calming me down by distracting me." She admitted sheepishly.

"Ah, so you sought my help this time as well." Dally deduced with a proud nod, confident to be of service once more. The blonde, however, could only offer him a short giggle.

"Hardly, given how you are the reason for my mental turmoil this time."

Raising a brow at that, he couldn't help but ask: "Did I mess up somehow?"

She grinned at him knowingly, amused by his cluelessness. "Nope, it's the opposite, really. You could say I ended up like this because you ended up doing things just right. Knowingly or not."

He scratched the back of his head confusedly. "Okay, I'll have to admit: You lost me."

She let go of him to position herself in front of him, still grinning. "I am not surprised. I can barely follow my own reasoning these days but hear me out for now. Perhaps it will somehow make sense in the end."

"Alright, hit me." The confused knight was seen folding his arms in front of his chest with a serious expression. He was apparently gathering his whole focus on her next words, eager to not only comprehend her dilemma but also fixing it for her. He wanted to help his princess, after all. She smiled at him and his cute reaction. He may have been utterly lost, but that didn't manage to put a dent into his willingness to fix the problem for her regardless.

"Well, remember how you asked me what I thought of you and I told you I would tell you once you got your body back? I think that moment has come." She told him seriously, her jade eyes gleaming with determination. This was it, no more backing down, no more shying away. Her resolve was quickly noticed by the other party, who was now tensing up nervously as well as gulping audibly.

'_Oh no, don't get nervous now. You are making me nervous as well…' _Her inner voice cried in panic as she tried to resist the urge to avert her gaze and back down. However, she managed to get her act together with clenched fists in the end. She was a strong and proud Cra, she could do this! She had kissed him on the cheek before, surely she could manage a real one as well! Press on, Eva!

"Close your eyes." The blonde Cra thus asked of him as she stepped closer, somehow managing to keep her voice calm in spite of the rapid acceleration of her heartbeat. It pounded so loudly inside her, she was almost certain he must have been able to hear it as well, but he seemed to be far too captivated by her eyes and the beauty that lied therein to notice. He was so ensnared, in fact, he appeared to not register her words at first, having to blink a few times to get back to his senses briefly enough to finally heed her command, albeit reluctantly. It was such a waste to close your eyes in front of such a marvelous sight, after all.

Eva noticed something weird happening to herself as well. She had gotten so close by now that there was next to no room in between them anymore and yet it somehow still felt as if she wasn't close enough. Where she had previously forced her body to get closer against her mind's embarrassed objections, she was soon to realize it was now getting drawn in by her lovely knight all by itself. He was like a planet, she was like a satellite in terminal orbit, unable and entirely unwilling to escape his gravitational pull. Her cheeks flared up with heat as she was entering atmosphere…she prayed to Cra that she wouldn't burn up before reaching her destination.

But she was far from the only one blushing. As she approached her nervously waiting Iop's lips, she could clearly see the red shade he was developing all around his face. Her left hand found its way to his red mane, gently brushing through his fiery hair playfully in an attempt to calm them both down as her lips began approaching his gradually. Once she got close enough to feel his breath on her face, she eventually decided to close her own eyes as well.

And then, at long last, their lips met.

It was the most gorgeous feeling they had ever felt in their entire life.

Once again, Dally had done for her what he did best. He had obliterated _everything_ around them. The sound of the chirping crickets was gone, as was the rustling of the leaves in the wind. And best of all? The annoying whining of her inner voice that kept trying to hold her back – it had gotten annihilated as well. Now there was only him and her and the peace that surrounded them. Realizing this, she put her arms around his neck, unwilling to let him stray from her too far. This relaxing calmness he provided for her? It was bliss. Before she knew it, she was melting into his arms he had put around her by now.

As for Dally, he was the exact opposite. Nothing inside him was calm. His head was full of fireworks and his heart leapt of joy so much, he was afraid it might accidentally jump straight out of his chest in all its happiness. The inner voice inside him was heard cheering at the top of its lungs and the only reason he wasn't joining in lied in the simple fact that doing so would have ended this wonderful moment in the first place. Yet he wanted it to never end, hence why he had put his arms around his lovely princess to keep her with him forever.

But alas, such a thing was not to be. As beautiful as the moment may have been, it still eventually had to come to an end. When Eva eventually retreated and he opened his eyes again at last to see those beautifully shining green gemstones that were her eyes - looking back at him with so much love, so much affection to be seen in them - he understood perfectly well the message she had tried to convey to him.

And although she didn't have to put it into words anymore at this point for him to understand, she still declared with a happy, albeit slightly shy smile: "I love you, Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove. With all my heart."

The young knight needed a second to take these words in, and so he just stood there with eyes open wide and mouth slightly agape. So many days and nights had he spent dreaming of the day this would happen, never actually daring to assume it eventually would…until last night when she had hinted at her actually caring a lot about him. And now, she had actually gone and confirmed it for real. Wait, this was real, right? This wasn't merely another dream of his, was it? Had he _really_ been woken…? Or was he perhaps still sleeping back in their camp, having his fantasy create a beautiful story after hearing about Eva's hinted affection the day before…?

Welp, only one way to find out, right? He raised his right hand, formed a fist…

…and punched himself right in the face.

"Dally!? What the hell are you doing?" Eva exclaimed in shock at seeing him act so utterly incomprehensible.

But her Iop? He just smiled in utter happiness, despite clearly being in pain, or maybe because of that fact? She wasn't entirely sure.

"Now you've done it, Evangelyne." Rubi sighed at her. "You have fried the last of the brain cells this fool still had."

Dally for his part could only chuckle to himself in what seemed to be relief. "It is not a dream."

"Nope, that really happened. Although I didn't want to believe it at first, either." Rubi told him as he rolled his eye. "Never thought I would see the day someone would actually confess to a numb nut like you. You might want to check if she has a fever or something. No one in their right mind would fall for you."

"You. Silence." Eva scolded him for his rudeness and flicked his eye to shut him up before facing Dally again with a worried look as she inspected the bruise he had left on his own cheek. "That was to confirm whether you were dreaming? You Iop brain, couldn't you have just pinched yourself or something?"

He flinched slightly at the touch, causing her to sigh at him. He had used his full force, too. She guessed Iops really never held back at all, not even when hitting themselves for the most stupid of reasons.

"Gotta make sure it actually hurts, or else there is no point. Pinching feels more like tickling or something." He explained to her, rubbing his aching cheek as well, but returning to his happy grin soon after. "But nevermind that, Eva! It's real!"

He surprised her by hugging her from one moment to the next, spinning around with her while laughing happily.

"Oh Eva, I am so overjoyed, I could kiss you!"

Giggling at that, the blonde could only reply with: "Yeah, we kinda just did."

He laughed awkwardly as he released her from his hug, his blush returning to his face. "Ah, right. So…are we now…you know, an item?" His eyes gleamed with excitement and hope.

Her own cheeks flared up as well as she looked away shyly. "Gosh, don't make me spell out _everything_. It's embarrassing."

"Well, if you ask me, your bashful side is also pretty cute, so…" He admitted with one of his all-too-familiar big grins as he scratched the back of his head while the red color of Eva's cheeks only intensified.

"Great, now you are teasing me, too. As if Amalia wasn't enough already." She sighed and pouted slightly, looking away. "But yes, never would have imagined that this would eventually happen when we first met, but I suppose we really are a couple now. That being said…"

The blonde Cra took hold of his collar and pulled him closer to her, eying him sharply. "If you break my heart I am gonna break your neck, got it?"

Dally noticed how she tried to be intimidating but seemed to be far too happy and flustered about their new arrangement herself to look the part. Rather than a warning, it came off like a playful statement you would expect from a stubborn kid. That's why he could do little but chuckle in amusement.

"You must be joking, Eva. Like I would ever do something as disgraceful as breaking the heart of my lovely princess." He told her confidently while Rubilax narrowed his eye one him.

"Said the moron who broke her bow, then ran away to die in a desert."

The mighty and proud Percedal's posture visibly crumbled for a second before his face was warped into a furious grimace as he took out Rubilax and threw him against the nearest tree with enough force to keep him stuck there.

"And just whose damn fault was that, huh!?"

"Mine or what?" Rubi shot back equally as angry.

Eva could do little but narrow her eyes at Dally in annoyance, not really wanting to remember how hurt and betrayed she had felt back then. She took hold of his ear and pulled on it to get his attention as she said: "I don't really care about that bow anymore, but if you run away a second time, I won't forgive you."

"Ow, ow, ow, come on, Eva. I even came back from the dead for you, why would I ever leave you again willingly?"

This made her drop her frown for a smile, pleased by his cute words. She let go of his ear in favor of hugging him instead, snuggling as close to him as she could.

"I was very sad when you died, you know? Without you, everything around me lost color and my world stopped moving. Sometimes I would watch over my shoulder, expecting to still see you there, grinning back at me, only to be greeted by the void you left behind instead. I missed your voice, hearing you say all these stupid and sometimes cute things you used to tell me. At one point, I even asked Amalia if I could visit the tree of life again, just so it could make me dream of you one more time." A slightly sad chuckle escaped her lips. "She refused me, fearing I would choose to never wake from that dream again. Sometimes I wonder if she was right."

"Eva…" Dally's eyes were open wide from shock as she told him all this. Before he knew it, he had wrapped his arms around her, holding her close with a sad expression, feeling sorry for having been the cause of her grief. "Seems like I always end up hurting you, despite me not wanting to…forgive me."

She broke the embrace, still with a smile. Her left hand found its way up to his face, caressing his cheek gently. He put his own hand over hers and leaned into it affectionately.

"What are you talking about, you big oaf? You did nothing wrong. You saved me and Amalia. You are a true hero."

He eyed her sadly as he shook his head as if unsure about that. "Heroes don't make their loved ones cry. Again."

"Yes, I did cry. A lot." She admitted truthfully. "But without your actions, I would have died, so I ought to thank you, my valiant knight, for always saving me as heroically as you did." She performed a small but respectful bow of gratitude that left him speechless for a second. "But more importantly, I am just grateful that you came back to me. True, sometimes you make me mad beyond belief and sometimes I may think that I really hate you, but in truth, the short time without you has taught me that life without you just sucks and that no matter how much you annoy me sometimes, I still love you more than anything."

For a few seconds, Dally didn't seem to know how to reply to these heartfelt words. He had never expected her to thank him, had never even felt she owed him anything at all. He just did what he felt was right. The thing was, he would probably still not know what the right thing was to this day if not for her.

"No, Eva…" He eventually said to her as he put both his hands on her shoulders with a serious expression. "You don't need to thank me for anything. Rather than that, I should be thanking you for showing me what's truly important in life. You see, I always wanted to die a legend, but the thing is, once I died and went to the other side, I quickly noticed that the afterlife wasn't as awesome as my time with you had been. My place is where you are and nowhere else. That's why,…"

She was surprised to see him kneel down before her, putting his right hand on his chest, right where his heart was. "I, Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove, herby swear on my honor that I shall stay at your side and protect you from any harm that tries to befall you and that I, should someone force us apart, will always find my way back to you as long as I draw breath. My blade is yours, Lady Evangelyne, for as long as you wish." He took her hand into his and kissed the back of it gently while Eva's eyes shone like diamonds from the sweetness of his speech. These had been the most beautiful words anyone had ever said to her and she swore on Cra's name she would place them in the deepest part of her heart, where they would become her most guarded and cherished treasure. Seriously, who would have thought her lovely Iop could be this romantic as well? It was like the surprises never ended with him.

"And again, he didn't ask me. Typical…" Rubilax had grumbled to himself in the meantime, followed by rolling his eye. "Hey Romeo, should you really be swearing oaths left and right as you do? What about the last one you swore? Fulfilled that one, yet?"

Dally frowned as he scratched his head. "The one I gave Yugo? You think my dept to him has not yet been repaid?"

Eva could do little but grab Dally's arm and pull him towards her as if subconsciously declaring that she wasn't sharing. "If you asked me, I think Dally has paid off every dept there could have ever been, so he is free to swear a new oath which he just did. In other words, that oath is legit. No refunds! None! That knight is mine now!" She declared hastily and perhaps with a bit too much desperation to be heard in her voice, even going as far as sticking her tongue out at the demonic sword still stuck in that tree. Said sword eyed her amusedly and chuckled.

"Easy there, sister. You are being more possessive than most Shushus I know."

"Am not!" She growled back at him with a raised fist. To call her possessive, pah! These words had been Dally's precious gift to her. It would have been mighty impolite to void them now. She would keep them in her heart until the end of time!

Dally for his part could only grin at the situation, clearly moved by Eva's eagerness to keep him around. "At any rate, it should be fine. Oaths are meant to be kept until you die. I did die, so even if my previous oath was not yet fulfilled, it no longer applies anyway, freeing me up to have a new one." He faced Eva and eyed her with a raised brow. "That made sense, right?"

She giggled and ruffled his hair playfully with a smirk. "Sounds about right to me."

"Suit yourselves, lovebirds. Not like I really care who this moron swears fealty to anyway…" Rubi said, clearly unimpressed as he eyed them with boredom. "But be that as it may, how about you get me off this damn tree already, Dally-boy? Lest this blade you just swore to someone else will protect absolutely no one."

"Yeah, yeah." The redheaded knight agreed listlessly and with a sigh. "You do realize you only ended up in that tree because you kept being rude again?"

"Old habits die hard…" The Shushu blade responded with an implied shrug as Dally pulled it out with a strong jolt. He was about to put Rubi back into his sheath when a certain idea befell him and he started smirking excitedly.

"Hey, today is a pretty important day for us, is it not, Eva?"

She eyed him questioningly, but nodded nonetheless. "Quite so. What are you up to?"

"Why, just leaving a mark for history to witness. We are legends, after all." Using Rubilax as a knife, he began carving something into the tree he just pulled him out of. As the blonde Cra looked him over the shoulder, she quickly realized what he was doing and smiled in amusement as well as shaking her head at the silliness of it. Rubi on the other hand could only sigh in resignation.

"How humiliating…a powerful tool of destruction and genocide such as myself…reduced to nothing but a means to perform petty vandalism…"

"Vandalism? That's art, Rubi." Dally defended his work proudly as he stepped back to take a better look at it. A carving of a heart with his and Evangelyne's names in it. "Behold! A testament to our glorious love, Eva." His hand travelled sideway before him, indicating that he was envisioning something happening there.

"Years from now, people will come to this place and be amazed to stand at the spot where the legendary Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove and Lady Evangelyne became a couple." He grinned excitedly and pointed at some place at the side. "They might even open up a stand right there selling souvenirs or something. And some people will try to add their names next to ours in an attempt to become just as famous. But they won't because they are not us. Too bad for them, right?"

Eva could only laugh in her sleeve after hearing about his ridiculous fantasies. "Right, right. Just make sure Amalia won't find this or she will make you pay for harming that tree needlessly."

"Nonsense." He waved her argument off with a shrug. "I know how to handle princesses by now. The feisty one gets a flick to the forehead, the lovely one…" He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer to him, letting her lean back on the tree he had just 'upgraded' as he eyed her lovingly. "…gets a kiss on the lips."

She put her hands around his neck to reel him in with a playful smirk. "I am still her bodyguard so you gotta bribe me with many of those to make me look into the other direction when you plan to flick her forehead."

"That can be arranged." Was all the redheaded knight had to say before he gently approached his lady's lips for the second time that night. They were, without a doubt, the sweetest thing he had ever tasted, their deliciousness even surpassing the sweetness of honey itself while their softness could even turn cotton candy green from envy. He was afraid he might soon reach the point where he might no longer be able to live on without kissing her highly addictive lips on a regular basis, but as he wondered whether putting that spell on him might have been her intention from the start when she had first kissed him, he was soon to realize that it didn't matter. This trap of hers had been one he was more than willing to walk into without resistance any time of the day.

Likewise, Eva was about ready to melt into his warm, strong arms and would likely have fallen over with how weak her knees had already become if his firm grip on her hadn't stabilized her enough to keep her standing. Her mind that was normally constantly buzzing with hectic thoughts and useless worries was instead just filled with him. His smell, his touch, his taste. He was so overwhelming, his presence so overbearing that he simply left no room for anything else in there. Sometimes she just wished it could stay that way if only just for the peace of mind he provided her with. There was no need to worry about anything, for his arms were the safest place in the whole world of twelve to be in and likewise, there was nothing else she needed to think about when all that truly mattered was how much he loved her and vice versa.

Unfortunately for her, she knew things could never be this simple, which was why she was the first to notice when a pair of big, wooden hands reached out and grabbed them each.

"Wha-?"

"H-huh…?"

The wooden hands were lifting them up to be brought before the face of a grimly looking tree several sizes smaller than the one they had encountered in that forbidden forest on the day the brotherhood had first met each other. Immobilized by the tree's strong grip, Evangelyne could do little but eye it with nothing but annoyance, wondering if they had accidentally run into that Soft Oak's smaller cousin or something. She sighed about their bad luck. Just for once in her life she would have liked to enter a normal forest that wasn't cursed, enchanted or otherwise magical in some way. Just once! Was that too much to ask for?

"Excuse me, but do you mind? We were kind of in the middle of something here…" Eva couldn't quite hide her frustration and thus asked with gritted teeth. She really had no nerve to deal with this blockhead with about as much wits as a log would likely have. Seriously, why was it that every time things were going well, someone just had to come up and ruin it for her? And just as things had gotten good, too…that wasn't fair at all! However, realizing her inability to change anything about her current situation, she could do little but sulk silently.

"You've heard the lady. Unhand us at once, or I will cut you into fine pieces of firewood, you ugly rug! I've felled demons thrice your size already!" Dally seemed to be about as done with this disturbance as she was, apparently, freeing up his right arm from the tree's grip and swinging Rubilax around angrily. Unfortunately, however, he didn't get a good enough angle to actually cut himself free.

The sentient tree eyed them grumpily and growled at Dally in particular once he spotted the sharp tool in his hand. Eva frowned at the incomprehensibility of the wooden being's words. Unlike Soft Oak, this tree apparently was still a couple centuries too young to even remotely grasp human speech, which would only make things more complicated than they already were. Just where was Amalia and her plant magic when you needed her?

The tree looked down to the base of its trunk and spotted the carving Dally had left behind, then proceeded to yell at the Iop knight some more.

"What's your damn problem, man?" The redhead yelled right back. "If this is supposed to be some kinda yelling contest, I am gonna win that one as well, so just give up!"

"I think it doesn't like the new tattoo you gave it there, Dally." Eva figured, although her guess was as good as any. They might as well have accidentally stepped on some saplings, or bugs or something else this guy might have cared about for all she knew. Who could tell?

Hearing this, Dally rolled his eyes. "Tch. Everybody is a critic these days…"

"Well, I liked it." Eva gave her honest feedback, averting her gaze slightly with a blush. "It was kinda cute."

"Why, thank you!" Dally gleamed at her praise, smiling from one ear to the other.

Feeling ignored, the big tree yelled at them once more, causing the redheaded Iop to growl right back at it.

"Oh for the love of- will you shut up already? It's just a scar! You should wear it like a badge of honor! Like I do! See these demonic marks? Eva gave me those! She's the best!" He grinned proudly at the tree as he tried shifting its attention to the black marks on his face and hair while Eva nervously wiggled around in the tree's other hand.

"Those were an accident! I don't even remember putting those on him, I swear!"

"Well, I do. And it was glorious! We three should do that again sometime, now that we are all such good _pals_…" Rubi added, chuckling to himself in a pleased way for some reason.

Ignoring Rubi, Dally nudged his head into Eva's direction, still grinning. "Awww, look at her being all humble about it. Ain't she the cutest?"

One of the tree's lower eyelids twitched in utter annoyance. What were these idiots on about? Who gave a damn about anything it was they were saying? Where had these pests even come from? All it knew was that they had shown up all of a sudden, ruined its marvelous bark and then had the nerve to not even apologize for it. The tree knew perfectly well what it needed to do with these intruders. They had to go.

And thus, it reached back as far as it could and proceeded to throw them away with as much might as it could muster, letting out one final growl while it was at it.

The unfortunate couple could do little but scream as they were tossed aside and flew through the air with frightening speed. Eva in particular was very worried about how they would survive the fall when Dally somehow managed to get a hold of her midair to pull her closer to himself.

"Don't worry, Eva. I got you." He told her reassuringly, which somehow helped, but still made her eye him worriedly.

"That's good, but who got you?"

"I do." Rubilax said with confidence as he took possession of Dally, turning him into the demonified Iop who had once thrown himself in front of her even in face of certain death. His bigger, stronger arms held her close to him as he grinned at her.

"With Rubi's help, I can even survive falling into lava for a short while, so we will be fine." He told her.

"Yeah, but it still _hurts_…" Rubi couldn't help but add begrudgingly.

"Luckily we are in the middle of a forest. Landing on trees always lessens the pain for some reason." Or so he said…Eva wasn't sure whether she should feel relieved about that information or worried about how much that statement made it seem like it might be a regular occurrence for him to land in trees. Also, lessens the pain compared to landing on…_what_, exactly? The more she thought about it, the less she wanted to know. Just what kind of life had this Iop brain of hers been living up until now…?

"What about a body of water?" Rubi had asked him in the meantime as he looked at something ahead of them.

"That's very bad. I know it makes no sense but hitting water hurts like getting hit by a sack of bricks." Dally said with a frown, followed by shaking his head. "I would rather hit land than water."

Eva closed her eyes in resignation. Her boyfriend was an expert in crashing into things, apparently.

"Well, tough luck there, Dally-boy. Looks like we are heading for a lake."

The Iop knight's eyes opened up wide in shock at those words. Now looking ahead of himself, he noticed that Rubi was, in fact, telling the truth. He could do little but curse about his bad luck. "Oh for fuck's sa-"

Bracing for impact in the best way he could, he tried to position himself in a way that he would hit the surface with his back first, holding Eva protectively in his arms so she would hopefully get affected the least. True enough, despite them whirling around a lot upon impact, Eva had little to complain about aside from some slight dizziness when they finally came to a halt in a rather large lake.

"Urgh…you guys alright?" She quickly tried to check on Dally and Rubilax only to notice that her heroic knight had lost his demonic appearance and was floating in the water with an expression that clearly told her that he had lost track of where up or down was.

"Everything is spinning, Eva." Her dizzy knight told her confusedly while Rubi yelled at him angrily.

"Get a grip, you wimp! Don't you dare letting me go here. If I sink, I will possess the first critter I find to beat you up, I swear!"

"Relax, Rubi. I got you." He shook his head and groaned, putting the noisy blade back into its sheath. "What about you, Eva? You hurt?"

"Don't think so, thanks to you." She told him with a kind smile but was soon to drop it in favor of a worried expression. "You, on the other hand, seem to have taken the majority of the damage there…"

Or so she had thought. However, as she tried inspecting his back for injuries, she was very surprised to merely see it having gotten mildly bruised at best. What the hell, demonified Iops were freaking indestructible, it seemed. Or perhaps it was just Dally…

"Well, it smarts a bit, but it's nothing a good night's rest won't fix." He told her with a carefree shrug, rubbing the aching parts of his back absentmindedly. It needed more to bring an Iop like him down.

"Is there anything sleep can't fix for you?" She asked him with eyes narrowed down in disbelief. He seemed to think briefly before replying with a nod:

"Hunger."

"But of course. Why did I even ask?" She rolled her eyes in mild amusement and began looking around them. When she noticed that the lakeside wasn't far, she uttered a sigh of relief. She couldn't wait to get out of the chilly water. After nearly drowning in Rubilaxia, she could probably do without swimming for at least a couple more months. Now that she thought about it, the lake's water seemed to turn even darker, its depth growing endlessly in size as if wishing to consume her. Before she knew it, her grip on Dally became tighter, the lake's depth somehow becoming less oppressing in his presence.

"What's wrong?" He asked her with a raised brow.

"N-nothing." Eva responded hastily and with a crooked grin. "Everything's fine."

Following her worried gaze, he wondered: "Something in the water?"

"N-not quite…" She tried dodging the question while looking away in shame. She was a trained soldier who had bravely faced even the scariest foes without faltering. Of course she _wasn't_ afraid of mere…water.

Dally kept alternating between looking at her and the lake she seemed to retreat from. Eventually he seemed to get the picture and grinned.

"Ah, I see. It's the water itself."

"…" She silently pouted, simply cursing his ability to put one and one together when she didn't want him to only to be utterly oblivious when she wished he would catch a hint. It's almost like he was doing it on purpose. This darn fool, seriously.

"Don't worry, Eva. I know how to fix this." He told her reassuringly as he put his hands together underwater and urged her to put her feet on them. "Just tell me when you are ready and I will launch you right to the lakeside, alright?"

She looked at him, followed by turning around to check the distance between them and the border of the lake. True, it wasn't _that_ far, but still way further than anyone she knew could throw someone. "Are you sure? It's quite some ways off."

The redheaded Iop could only shrug at her unwarranted concerns with a laugh. "Oh please, that's child's play. Come on, you ready?"

"Alright. Let's do it!" Once he had receiving a determined nod as confirmation, Dally proceeded launch her off with enough might to send her flying right into the direction of the nearby landmass.

"Allez-hop!"

Eva had barely left the water when her natural agility kicked in and she effortlessly performed several flips midair before safely landing on her two feet like a cat. Looking around her and noticing that she, indeed, had reached firm ground once more, she couldn't help but grin at herself happily. That had been fun.

She sort of wanted to do that again…

"Awesome landing there, Eva! I give it a ten!" The redheaded Iop yelled to her with two thumbs up and a wide grin that made her blush slightly, followed by straightening her posture and performing an elegant bow not unlike actors did after a well-executed performance.

"Thank you, thank you." She continued to play the role with a smile as she watched him swim to her as fast as he could. Once he was out of the water, he proceeded to try and shake himself dry like a wet dog, only to realize it didn't quite work that way with clothes, much to his disappointment.

"Couldn't have made it without you, though. It's amazing you managed to throw me all the way over here." Eva gave herself impressed, putting her right hand on her chin thoughtfully. "We should consider using that move in combat one day."

"Heck yeah! The bad guys won't even know what hit them!" Dally was visibly interested in her idea, given his wide grin and the gleam in his eyes. Well, he was either interested in the idea or fighting in general. Hard to tell, really.

She cleared her throat embarrassedly and rubbed her upper arm uncomfortably. "Also, it would be great if you wouldn't mention my temporary problem with deep waters to the others. I am sure I will eventually overcome it…just not right away."

Her redheaded knight offered her a weak smile as he massaged the back of his neck awkwardly. "Hey, don't worry about it. I can sort of relate to the feeling, really. Master Goultard's way of teaching kids how to swim was...pretty traumatizing in on itself…"

"No kidding." Rubi said with a narrowed down eye. "Remember how he just grabbed you by the leg and threw you in the middle of a lake? We nearly ended up on the bottom of that one. That was pretty hardcore even for Iop standards…"

Dally shuddered at that memory. "_Every living creature knows how to swim instinctively."_, he said. Yeah, right. The only thing I knew was how to sink." He folded his arms in front of his chest and frowned bitterly.

Eva raised a brow in a mixture of shock and disbelief. "Your teacher did that? That's a joke, right?"

"Wish it had been. Apparently, his dad had used the same method on him, too, so he followed the tradition. Doesn't explain why he had enjoyed torturing me with it so much, though. I swear he had smirked at me as he had watched me struggle in the water, muttering something about payback time." He sighed deeply. "Sometimes my master can be quite weird…"

Eva was about to offer him a few words of consolation to cheer him up again when the sudden urge to sneeze stopped her from doing that.

"Damn, the night air sure got chilly now that we are soaked, huh." She realized as she rubbed both her upper arms for some warmth. "We should probably do something about our wet clothes before we catch a cold."

"Say no more, my lovely Evangelyne. This knight of yours will start a fire for you right this instant." Dally reassured her as he sped off to gather every piece of firewood in their direct vicinity the very next second. Not even a full minute had passed before he returned with a huge stack easily twice his size in his arms.

"Think that will be enough?" He asked her, sounding unsure. She half expected him to run back to gather even _more_ so she signaled for him to put it down with a deep sigh before he could speed off again. Arranging the various pieces into a proper pile, she then took out her bow to shoot a fire arrow at it. The campfire came to life soon after.

"You Iop brain, why did you bring so much? Do you intend to stay here for a week?" She asked him with some mild amusement in her voice.

"I just figured more wood meant a bigger fire. A bigger fire means more warmth." He laid bare his reasoning to her. She raised a finger and was about to tell him how bad of an idea it was to create a huge bonfire in the middle of a forest when another chilly wind grazed her wet skin. Gulping down her objections, she wordlessly took even more of his gathered firewood to feed the fire with it, making it bigger and, thankfully, warmer as well.

"See? It was good I brought so much." He told her with a proud grin.

She narrowed her eyes on him, not really wanting to admit that his Iopish excessiveness had come in handy this time, but she swallowed her pride and decided to give credit where it was due. "A bigger fire was a good call. But just this once. We don't want to start a forest fire, alright?"

"Gotcha. I will keep an eye on it." He told her as he pointed at his own two eyes first, followed by pointing at the fire. "With that being said…"

Eva raised a brow when she saw him removing his cape. By the time he had done the same with his trousers, Eva's eyes had already been wide from shock.

"W-what are you doing, Dally?" She asked him as she turned away, face beet red.

"What do you mean?" He seemed to be quite confused about her question. "Our clothes are wet, so we ought to dry them by the fire. You should remove yours, too, or you might really catch a cold, you know?"

"You've got no shame, don't you?" She told him off with eyebrows quivering from annoyance. Did this guy think she was born yesterday? As if she wouldn't notice a cheap tactic such as this to get her out of her clothes.

"_Nice try, Percedal, but you are way out of your league to assume you can outwit me._" Her inner voice declared with a confident smirk.

That was until she narrowed her eyes suspiciously and eyed him critically, searching his face for any signs of ulterior motives, only to quickly realize that there were none. All there was were two pale brown eyes innocently sparkling in the faint light of the campfire belonging to a rather confused Iop tilting his head ever so slightly to the side, not really understanding the question. He really just wanted her to not catch a cold. That's it.

Her confident facial expression was quick to melt away in favor of a guilty one. Now _she _felt like the idiot here. Dally, using underhanded strategies? Deploying tactics to trick her? A guy who wouldn't even use traps because he thought they were dishonorable? She must have had a short moment of craziness afflicting her to even assume so for just a second. This was Dally, you know? The whitest white knight you would ever meet, with an armor as spotless and pure as his soul tended to be. Well, if he had actually worn armor, for the matter. If there was anyone she could lower her guard around of, it would be this adorable fool of hers.

She let out a deep sigh, disappointed with herself. "Nevermind, Dally. It's my loss. It may be a bit embarrassing but you are right, after all." With that being said, she slowly started stripping as well, albeit not without a distinct blush on her cheeks, not least because Dally was watching her every move. Sure, he did so with no ill intent whatsoever, but somehow that didn't make it easier at all. However, once she started focusing on the feeling of her cold, wet clothes finally being shed away from her skin, it actually became somewhat relieving to free herself of them. Onlooking boyfriend or not. She even almost forgot he was there by the time she had laid off the final layer of clothes, leaving her in just her underwear, same as him.

Until she caught him grinning to himself, that was. Subconsciously covering herself up in shame, she asked defensively: "W-what?"

"You've got freckles on more places than just your face. I learned something new today."

This made her relax, narrowing her eyes on him with a smirk of her own. "Oh yeah? And you are tan in places you shouldn't be." _Unless you were running around in that desert butt-naked, that is_. Her mind added the last part.

To her surprise, this made him look down on himself in shock as well. "Hey, now that you mention it…how exactly did that happen?" He looked at her again, seemingly worried as he pointed at himself. "That's weird, isn't it? Am I weird?"

This made her smile at him in amusement, stroking that hair of his gently. "I don't really know. All I do know is that I like you the way you are, weird or not." She scratched her cheek awkwardly and looked away as she added with a slightly quieter voice: "Besides, I think it quite suits you. The tan, I mean."

His face lit up brighter than a kid's one on Christmas morning. "Really? You like it? What a relief." She chuckled at that reaction. Weirdness didn't seem to matter all that much as long as she was fine with it, huh? The opinions of anyone else had been disregarded from the start. It was somewhat flattering to see how much her opinion mattered compared to everyone else's, but then again: She supposed she had come to the point where she was basically the same with him.

Rubi could do little but roll his eye. "Oh brother, I think I just threw up a little."

Dally grinned nervously at Eva as he took his sword out and turned around to scold it in "private", nevermind the fact that Eva could still hear the entire conversation regardless.

"You just can't hold off from doing that, can you? How would you even throw up without a mouth in the first place, huh? Rubi, I swear to Iop if you ruin this for me, I'll…"

"Oh shut up, you fool. Get back to kissing already. At least then your mouths are sealed and I won't have to deal with this constant flirting anymore. Let me guess, you were about to compliment her freckles next since she complimented your tan. Buergh, if I had known this was awaiting me if I stick with you, I would have rather chosen to get sent back to the Shukrute. At least Rushu would have ended my suffering quickly."

Eva frowned at Rubi's words, but couldn't help but find his idea to get back to kissing _very _intriguing, especially since they had been interrupted so rudely last time…it was slightly funny how something she had been so nervous about before had turned into something she couldn't wait to do again after she had tried it out once. Heck, she would do it all day if she could, that's how nice it actually was.

Meanwhile, the conversation continued with her knight becoming slightly nervous. "W-wait, you mean to tell me I shouldn't compliment her freckles? Why not? Have you seen them? They are super cute…"

The tips of her ears turned red and twitched happily. They were? A smile appeared on her lips. She wasn't quite sure why, but she was somehow happy about those words, causing her to giggle to herself. Ehehe, she was cute.

Rubilax groaned exhaustedly. "Who gives a crap about freckles, boy? I know all this flirting is part of this weird human mating ritual you guys keep performing all the time but it's tiring and so unnecessary. Look, we all know that you two are madly in love. Everyone gets it. So just skip all this bullshit and get to the part you humans do afterwards. Speed up all this shit a little. You win, she wins, I win, everyone wins."

Dally's thought process during Rubi's rant was a curious one to behold. At first, a raised brow and confusion, then shock once he eventually figured out what the Shushu had meant by "mating rituals". Growing nervousness followed with Dally visibly struggling to find a way to make this talking blade of his shut up again. In the end, Dally gave up and threw the blade away in a panic.

"Oh, you son of a-!" Were Rubi's last words before disappearing in the nearest cluster of bushes.

"Sorry about that, Eva. Classic Rubi, am I right?" Dally turned around and tried to laugh the matter off, only to notice how red her face had suddenly become.

"Ah, we should probably hang our clothes up so they will dry faster. Let me handle that." She quickly looked away and forcibly changed the topic with a nervous laugh.

"Let me help you." He offered his assistance with that, only to have the blonde quickly deny him.

"There is no need, really. Just sit down near the fire, I will be done in a flash."

She was seen hastily dashing away with a crooked grin right afterwards. Nope, nope, nope. Way too embarrassing to stick around him after Rubi's unnecessary remarks. She needed a bit of space to cool off her head that had gotten quite dizzy again now that it had to deal with various noisy thoughts and _explicit_ images she would rather not have or see right now. Stupid Rubi…

"If you say so…" Her knight mumbled disappointedly and scratched the back of his neck while sitting down near the fire silently. He watched Eva gathering two rather large sticks, followed by ramming them vertically into the dirt to create two poles she could later connect with a string of rope. Something she quickly produced out of her bag which somehow seemed to contain literally anything this girl could possibly need at any given time. He frowned confusedly at that. What was this with women and their bags somehow becoming interdimensional gates that allowed them to store in way more things than should possibly fit into them? Was this some kind of magic he was unaware of? Every time he tried storing stuff into bags, they never seem to fit even half as much. How envious…

With the rope sprung between the poles, Eva was quick to hang their dripping clothes on it. They should dry more quickly now that they hung near the fire, or so she hoped at least. Happy with her work, she eventually found her way back to Dally, sitting down next to him. It was quiet now between them, with neither of them really knowing what to say. Awkward.

"You sure work quick." Dally tried initiating a conversation once more, looking slightly uncomfortable with the silence that hung around them.

"M-hm." She nodded, hugging her knees and letting her head rest on top of them absent-mindedly. "We will have to make sure our clothes don't catch fire, though."

He chuckled quietly. "Yeah, that would suck."

"Yup."

Silence followed once more as both of them kept throwing a gaze to the other, but quickly averting it once more before their eyes could really meet.

"How far do you think the tree threw us?" She asked him curiously, looking up at the sky to try and determine their new position with the help of the stars.

"Not _that _far, I think. We are still in the same forest, at least. Dunno how to get back to the others, though."

"Heh, you can leave that to me." She pointed at herself with a confident grin before narrowing her eyes sheepishly. "Once we got daylight, at least." As if she would try navigating the forest at night. They would likely only get lost further that way.

"Guess that means we will be camping here tonight, then?"

"Seems like we got no other choice." She sighed deeply. "Sorry, Dally. This only happened because I wanted to go on a midnight stroll."

But her knight only grinned at her, leaning back on his two arms casually. "You kidding, Eva? This was, like, the best night ever! We managed to get closer to one another and even ran into an adversary!" He frowned in annoyance and looked away with a click of the tongue. "Although it sucks that I didn't get to turn that darn tree into firewood. That would have been the icing on the cake, you know?" The last bit was added with a cocky smirk, of course.

The blonde Cra smirked as well, eying him mischievously. "You _are_ aware that doing so would have meant destroying your work of art you left on it, right?"

Hearing that, Dally's eyes opened up wide in shock. He brought his right hand up to his face, gnawing on his thumb's nail in frustration. "You are right…to preserve my masterpiece, I will have to let that bastard go…how disappointing." He sighed heavily.

She giggled at that and leaned in on him, allowing her head to rest on his shoulder. "You never change, do you?"

He looked at her and smiled, letting his head rest against her in return. "I guess I don't. You, on the other hand, changed a lot."

"How so?"

He scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Well, I don't know if that's just me, but I think even though we were close before as well, you used to hold yourself back or something. Not anymore, though. Which is good, by the way. It's the Iop way, after all." He offered her his boyish grin at the end which caused her to sigh in defeat and smile.

"You are not wrong, I guess. You may have rubbed off on me in more ways than I could even imagine myself to be possible." She looked up into the starry sky once more, marveling at the sheer endless amounts of lights to be found on the otherwise so dark firmament. "The Cra way is all about order and discipline. We are told that we are all part of something greater, that there is strength in unity. That's not wrong, of course, but to achieve unity, everyone has to follow orders, nobody is allowed to stray from their path. As a result, there is a time and place for everything. Love…tends to get shoved aside for later, if at all." She added the last part somewhat sadly, looking down again in what seemed to be disappointment.

"Why, though?" Dally asked her with a raised brow, causing Eva's gaze to grow frustrated, although none of her frustration had its source in her lovely Iop.

"Because Cras are supposed to have a sharp and clear mind. Love, on the other hand, is chaotic and distracting. That's what the instructors tell the recruits and it's not a lie, but it pisses me off how they conveniently hid the fact that it's also such an incredibly nice emotion to feel. Sure, when I fell in love, I thought I would lose my mind from all the craziness that started occupying my head, but…"

She took a deep breath and sighed, leaning in closer on her redheaded knight, looking up at him from the corner of her eyes with a small blush on her cheeks.

"What I gained in return was so wonderful, in fact, it was worth every second of craziness I had to endure, you know? To think I almost missed it all because of some stupid teachings from my childhood makes me sad." She frowned and pouted slightly. "Maybe there is a time and place for everything, but who said love had to come last? If anything, my experience has shown me that life can be quite short, given how I almost drowned yesterday and you were dead already, so who is to guarantee that there will still be time for it afterwards? Therefore, while I still will uphold the Cra way, I have decided to interpret the teachings the way I deem them to be more fitting. And if I have to add some Iop philosophy to make it work, so be it."

She grinned at him sheepishly and shrugged.

"I've come to like a certain man's Iopishness, after all. And if he is going to be part of my life now anyway, I might as well embrace said Iopishness as well. At least a little, that is."

Dally's eyes shone with admiration upon hearing her cute words and he struggled very hard to refrain from tackling her to the ground with a mighty hug in all his excitement. Instead, he found himself getting lost in her emerald eyes once more, getting hypnotized by their shimmering beauty. Before he knew it, his hand found its way to her cheek, caressing it gently and lifting her chin up ever so slightly for him to plant a loving kiss on her lips. From the way her own hand found its way to the back of his head, it became quite obvious that she quite approved of his actions. There, she played with his hair as well as pushed him towards her ever so slightly, getting greedy for his affection. Given how they were now starting to get used to the sensation of their lips touching, they began being more playful with each other, gently nibbling at each other's upper and lower lips, basking in the cute reactions the other one would offer them in response.

When Dally's hand found its way to Eva's back, gently tracing the line of her spine, the sensation of every single one of his fingertips sent electricity through her nerves and fire through her veins. A certain heat began spreading from her very core and she was certain its origin was not the campfire still cracking in the background, its embers becoming nothing but diffused blobs of light in her blurred vision. A gentle breeze brushed their bare skin and yet they didn't feel the cold anymore, feeling like they could live off the heat of one another alone.

Eva's hand found its way down from his head and onto his chest where her soft and delicate fingers met his strong and defined muscles, her fingernails carefully brushing his skin that could withstand a thousand punches, yet would become sensitive enough to send shivers down his spine from her touch alone. With how absorbed both participants were in their make-out session, it wouldn't have been inaccurate to claim that both had been in a trance-like state, which was probably why the blonde Cra didn't even notice how she had pushed her Iop back so he would now lie on the grassy ground behind them with her leaning over him, eying him with her bewitchingly beautiful eyes.

Dally couldn't help but notice how said eyes had traded their normally so sharp and focused look for one of affection and passion. Eyes which would otherwise be open wide and vigilant, surveying everything in their direct vicinity for potential threats having instead been narrowed down, clouded in a haze that made her blind to anything but him. The moon behind her shone its light on her, bestowing her with an aura that could only be described as divine, made her shine brighter than the fire next to them. A sight so breathtakingly beautiful, Dally could have sworn the goddess Cra herself had descended upon this world to come before him.

She leaned in on him once more, cupping his face and letting her forehead rest against his. There, she got lost in his eyes as well. Eyes which she knew could grow fierce and almost demonic when he faced his adversaries yet were so gentle and kind when looking at her. They shone with admiration and love, sparkled with awe and devotion. A pair of invaluable gemstones, incredibly marvelous to behold. She was lucky to have this treasure all to herself, and although she wouldn't consider herself stingy at all, when it came to sharing this one in particular, she would probably display so much protectiveness over her knight, it would even put Ruel's unbearable greed for money to shame.

"You are turning me crazy again…" She said softly as she grazed his cheek with her fingers playfully. It was barely more than a whisper.

He chuckled amusedly. "You can't spell 'crazy' without 'Cra'. I think."

This made her laugh as she hit his chest playfully while shaking her head in disbelief. "You damn idiot."

As enjoyable as their little moment was, however, it eventually got interrupted by the ominous laughter of a certain ex-demon nearby. Turning their attention towards the rustling sound of the bushes Dally had thrown Rubi into, they were surprised to see a giant moth-like creature emerge from it. Eva immediately turned green from disgust as she witnessed the gobball sized insect which now had Rubilax' eye implanted on its head.

"Ahahahaha, cower in fear, mortals! For I, the mighty Rubilax, have procured this vessel to exact my revenge on those who have dared to discard me in the bushes like trash! Now, my minion! Go forth and show them my wrath!" He ordered the creature which used its enormous wings to flap through the air effortlessly. However, instead of flying towards the shocked and mildly appalled couple, the insect seemed to be far more interested in the wonderous object that produced such magnificent and bright light next to them. And so, hypnotized by its beauty, the moth-creature chose to approach the campfire instead. Dally and Eva watched the show unfold before them in an obviously unimpressed manner. From the way they eyed Rubi with halfway narrowed down eyes, you didn't really have to be a mind reader to tell what they were thinking: "Really, Rubi?"

All while Rubi tried pulling the simplistic insect's attention away from the fire, albeit to no avail.

"Wha-? No! D-d-don't go there, you retarded creature! That's fire! It will kill you! Hey, listen to me you damn suicidal critter! Stop!" Despite him pushing and shoving the moth's head away from certain death, the dumb creature proceeded to approach its own demise with utmost determination. You could have almost called it poetic if it hadn't been for the fact of how incredibly dumb it was to see the insect's panicked and frantic movements the moment its wings had caught fire. From one moment to the next, the moth got erased from existence, purged by fire. Rubilax' sword prison emerged from its ashes, flying though the air to get stuck in the earth right next to the flames where he could do little but narrow his eye in utter disappointment, letting out a deep sigh.

"Fuck my life."

In front of him, a certain Cra and her Iop stood with folded arms and mischievous smirks on their lips, looking down on the grounded sword evilly.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the miiiighty Rubilax." Eva said teasingly as she crouched down and poked him playfully.

"How is that exacting revenge thing coming along there, bud? Need a hand?" Dally added with a chuckle as he crouched down next to Eva, grinning cockily.

Rubilax merely looked away in shame and annoyance, offering them a mocking laugh as he rolled his eye. "Ha, ha, ha. How very funny. Look, if this whole adventuring thing doesn't work out for you, maybe you two should consider trying your hand as stand-up comedians. You seem to be greatly qualified, given how you already look like CLOWNS!"

"Awww, look, he is ashamed. How adorable." Eva continued her teasing and playfully petted his hilt, knowing full well how much it would annoy him.

"Keep doing that, blondie. You will get all of that back eventually." He warned her with a scowl.

"There, there, Rubi. No need to get all demonic and evil about it. It's all just friendly banter, right Eva?" He asked her with a wink, getting an amused smile in return.

"Sure. Amalia does that all the time with me as well. Feels good to be the one doing it instead for a change."

The Shushu sword sighed in defeat. "Whatever, I guess I will have to get used to it, just like I will have to get used to your flirting." He then eyed Dally angrily. "But stop throwing me away! You are a Shushu guardian. Take proper care of me for fuck's sake!"

"Alright, alright! Relax. You behave from now on and I won't throw you around. Deal?"

"Deal."

Eva watched them silently and with a smile, hands neatly folded behind her back. However, when a sudden urge to yawn befell her, she was eventually reminded of her need to sleep that had finally returned to her. "As great as it is that we are all bonding with each other, I am afraid it's time to go to sleep now." She told them with another yawn.

"What? Insomnia over already?" Rubi asked her with his eye narrowed down in boredom.

"Yup. We had quite an eventful night, after all." She winked at Dally who could only grin happily in agreement. He then looked around and sighed, however.

"It's gonna be a rough night sleeping on the ground naked, though. Our clothes are still wet, after all."

This only caused Eva to smirk confidently as she walked over to her belongings. "Fear not, my lovely knight, for your lady comes well prepared!" She came to a halt before her pouch and waved him over with a finger, silently telling him to come closer. An order he had no qualms following on the spot.

"Alright Dally, I will let you in on a little secret, but you will have to swear to not tell anyone, alright?" She told him quietly with a finger held in front of her lips, still smiling cutely.

Getting excited over said secret, he began grinning from ear to ear. "My lips are sealed."

She nodded contently, trusting him to keep his word as she opened up her pouch for him to see that it hadn't been a normal one but in fact, a haven bag all along! Magical energy was whirling around inside, creating a small pocket universe inside the pouch. A marvel of Enutrof magic, truly rare and valuable. And best of all? Belonging only to her.

"Woah! No wonder it fits so much! You actually had one, too!" Dally exclaimed in pure excitement.

"Ruel gave me one in an attempt to cheer me up after your death. It's small and it used to stink even worse than Ruel's current one, but I cleaned it out and now it's neat and homey." She grinned proudly, but then eyed him worriedly. "Please make absolutely sure not to tell Amalia, okay? This is my only way to have some form of privacy. If she ever found out, it would immediately cease to be _my_ bag and instead become _ours_ as per royal decree, you understand?"

"Hey, I can keep secrets, no worries." He assured her with confidence, but then massaged the back of his neck nervously. "Rubi, though…"

She flinched in realization and eyed the blade that's still stuck in the ground a few meters from them worriedly. A glance alone was enough to realize he had overheard everything, given how it was now _him_ to look down on _her_.

"Oh how the tables have turned." He said with an evil sneer.

She quickly fell on her knees before the blade, folding her hands together with a pleading expression. "Please, Rubi! Mercy! You can't imagine how it's like to have a princess breathing down your neck constantly! I need this safe haven, this sanctuary! I can't let Amalia own my whole existence! A Cra _needs_ her personal space!"

He looked into her eyes which were sparkling with hope and determination and had soon to realize he couldn't bring it over him to shatter this girl's happiness after seeing how important it truly was to her. He frowned at himself in annoyance, realizing that he would have reveled in doing so not even a month before, but now that he had decided to become their comrade rather than just someone that was tagging along unwillingly, he had found that he actually _cared_. And that _sucked._ Stupid girl. Stupid friendship. Why did he have to be born a good guy? This was exactly why he had never belonged with demons despite having been born as such. Life sure was cruel, huh…

But then again, maybe it wasn't all that bad, you know? Sure, it was frustrating to lose your identity and having to reestablish your existence from scratch was anything but a thrilling experience either, but heck, he wasn't alone anymore and wouldn't be with these guys…given that they wouldn't throw him into bushes anymore. If being nice to them was the only requirement in exchange from being freed from the pain of solitude, perhaps he hadn't stuck that bad a deal.

Plus, he and Eva had one thing in common. They had to both endure Percy's antics from now on. You could say they were now allies in an unending war against Iop stupidity. If you looked at it that way, it actually didn't sound that terrible, eh? Oh well…

He groaned at her and averted his gaze shamefully. "Oh, what the hell…fine, since it's so important to you…but you owe me!"

"Thank you, Rubi!" She gleamed at him gratefully and even pulled out the blade to give it a hug in relief. He blinked at her in surprise. Huh, what was this feeling? Receiving gratitude and kindness…it was quite unfamiliar and yet…strangely pleasant. So, was this the appreciation he had sought from Rushu all this time? Strange how easily it could be obtained once he had changed the target to seek it from. If only he had known sooner, huh…

The feeling was rather short lived, though, given how quickly Percedal took him out of Eva's grasp. Luckily so, Rubilax thought, or else this strange and tingly feeling of friendship and comradery would have easily overwhelmed him. As an ex-demon, all these aspects of positivity were still rather new to him and he couldn't quite tell whether he should be feeling relieved or sickened to experience them. So many emotions to re-evaluate, so many things to experience anew. His quest to rediscover himself had only just begun, it seemed…

"You alright there, Rubi?" Dally asked his pal once he noticed his eye spinning around dizzily.

"Your girlfriend can be sickeningly sweet, Dally-boy. I can't tell if I like or dislike it."

"I am sure you will figure it out in time, Rubi." Eva told him reassuringly. He had centuries of demonhood to 'unlearn', so this confusion regarding positivity was pretty much a given. But if Rubi really had a good heart like Dally claimed, he would eventually get used to it.

"I don't even know if I should be happy or angry about these words of encouragement I received…" He groaned in frustration.

"There, there…" Eva patted his hilt, ironically confusing him even more. She felt bad for him, but figured the more positivity she showed him, the sooner he would get to figure out what to do with it. Similar with how you could only gain combat experience during combat, you could also only figure out how to deal with emotions by actually experiencing them. Another yawn brought her out of that train of thoughts, however, reminding her of the original reason for revealing her secret with those two.

"Anyway, you coming, Dally?" She thus asked her boyfriend, opening her haven bag and turning around to him questioningly.

"Right behind you, milady." He responded with a wide grin and gestured for her to go first. He was a courteous knight, after all. Ladies first and all. She offered him a pleased smile and begun crawling into that bag that seemed way too small to ever fit her. But somehow the bag's opening expanded while the Cra herself seemed to shrink and she eventually vanished inside it from one moment to the next. Granted, it was disturbing to watch your lovely girlfriend getting devoured by a piece of cloth, but he had seen it happen often enough with Ruel's bag to know that this was just how these weird things worked. Zero points for elegance but ten for efficiency. Yep, just like Enutrofs liked to work, he mused.

"Right. Guess now's my turn…" He mumbled to himself as he approached the bag next, but Rubi interrupted him.

"Wait, Dally. Leave me outside, will you?" He asked of him.

"Huh? Why?"

"I need some fresh air as well as some peace and quiet to…think about things…" He said, sounding somewhat distracted, as if he was lost in thought.

"You sure? If you need someone to talk to, I will listen."

Rubilax eyed him silently for a few seconds as if considering to actually accept that offer, but then closed his eye dismissively. "No, I will have to sort this out by myself first. But there might be a day I will hold you up to that offer. If you really mean it."

"Sure I do. Pals can always count on each other, right?" He gave the blade his biggest grin as he put it into the ground near the fireplace.

"Beats me. This whole pal business is all new to me, too. Like many things are…" Rubi responded with a frown. He had never had someone to count on before, really.

"Like Eva said, you will figure it out eventually."

"If you say so…" He looked down thoughtfully and noticed Dally turning around to get into the bag at last. His former demonic identity told him that it would be better to say nothing and bask in the mess that could possibly unfold if he did, but then he shook this way of thinking off and decided that, according to Dally, a pal ought to look out for his friend, so he reluctantly said:

"Wait, Dally. Before you go in there, just to make sure…" He sighed deeply, not really wanting to have this conversation either way. "…tell me, do you still think you were born in a crate of white cabbage?"

A few seconds passed with Dally looking at his Shushu blade confusedly before finally responding with: "Wait, what? Of course not. I had to pay Ruel 5 kamas to tell me, but he eventually explained it to me in detail…" He blushed deeply while adding: "Far too much detail." He couldn't believe no one had ever told him this stuff as he had grown up. You would think at least Master Goultard would have taken it upon himself to educate Dally a bit. But then again, the only kind of education Goultard seemed to pass on was combat related, so…perhaps he simply took a hard pass on everything else? Weak…

"Oh thank god…" Rubi mumbled to himself, sounding awfully relieved about the fact he wouldn't have to be the sucker who got to have _the talk_ with Dally before eventually noticing how the redheaded Iop in question raised a brow at him in confusion. "Ah, nevermind then, Dally. Proceed."

"Weird of you to bring this up after all this time…" Dally noted suspiciously and folded his arms in front of his chest. "Why did you ask?"

Rubi looked away awkwardly, trying to feign ignorance. "Oh, you know, n-no reason, really. Just wanted to make sure, is all."

"Weird…" Dally mumbled as he brought his hand to his chin. Why would he…? Oh well, Rubi was just doing Rubi things. There was no point thinking about it.

Rubi watched the redhead turn around to finally make his way to the haven bag and sighed in relief once he was about to enter it. The Shushu blade was lucky to have dodged a bullet there. But then he saw Dally froze with his hair standing up in shock and cursed internally. Crap, he had figured it out…

Dally stormed back to him with shocked expression, leaning in close to Rubi and whispering: "Wait, you think…?" He gulped down audibly and pointed at the haven bag. "Me and Eva…?"

Rubi looked unsure, as if he was shrugging. "Well, possibly? I mean, you looked like you were nearly about to when I interrupted you earlier and now you two are entering a haven bag together while being practically naked and quite obviously head over heels in love for one another. I am just connecting the dots here."

Dally eyed his sword in utter disbelief as his face grew hot with shame from one moment to the next. He had a point, didn't he? Now that he thought about it, it was a logical conclusion. His hands found their way to each sides of his head as he eyed the haven bag before him nervously.

"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. What am I gonna do, Rubi?" He asked his pal worriedly as he took a few steps back with shaky legs, causing Rubi to eye him as if he were to raise a brow. This idiot could face a horde of bworks fearlessly, yet would shy away from something like this?

"What's the matter with you, Romeo? Didn't the old geezer tell you how this works?"

Dally frowned and tried to remember his talk with Ruel with folded arms. "He did. The way he described it made it sound like a battle. It's one on one and you are supposed to make the other one scream, but not from pain but…pleasure?"

"…" Rubi stared at him with a look in his eye that quite literally could be read as "I can't believe you just said that."

"W-what? Did I get it wrong?" Dally asked him panicky. He couldn't afford messing this up now. He had gotten so far…

"Well, not really. I am just amazed how little and how much sense it made at the same time. I mean, do Iops try to relate everything to battle, eating and sleeping to make sense of it or is it just you?"

"It's easier to understand that way." Dally explained with a shrug. "Ruel was even nice enough to tell me about all the female weak spots and even tried sharing some tactics with me…" He scratched his head troubledly. "…but it started to get really complicated and I couldn't follow half of it, really."

"Well, that's hardly surprising. You were always more of a practical than theoretical learner…"

He flinched, cursing internally as he hit his palm with his fist angrily, frustrated with himself. "I knew it, so I should have practiced beforehand!" You wouldn't go slaying dragons without first having tried out your sword on smaller lizards first, right? But then again, who would you spar with in this case? Truly troublesome. This was some next level challenge right there. Like getting thrown into the boss room right off the bat. There was no way to prepare beforehand. Rubi seemed to think the same way.

"Uh…I think she would have killed you if she ever caught you 'practicing' with someone else." Humans tended to be that way, according to his experience anyway. "What are you so worried about though? Aren't Iops all about following instincts? Can't get any more instinct-based than mating, no? Even bugs can do it, and they don't even have brains!" He looked over to the campfire and remembered the moth he had recently possessed, narrowing his eye in disappointment and sighing in frustration at the memory. "Yep. Literally dumb as hell."

He put a finger on his chin, pondering Rubi's words. "If you put it that way, it probably won't be that hard." After all, he had never kissed before today, either, and he hadn't somehow screwed that up as far as he could tell. So maybe this was the same thing?

"But then again, most mammals can swim instinctively, too, yet you sank like a rock when Goultard threw you into the water as a brat…"

Percedal's newfound confidence crumbled and he let his shoulders hang in disappointment. "Are you trying to encourage me or trying to crush my spirit here?"

"Yeah, that's the thing I am trying to figure out, too. When I was still a demon, crushing your spirit was the right thing to do, but I no longer am one, so should I encourage you instead? But it feels so wrong…" Rubi pondered troubledly and groaned. "This shit is confusing as hell, I tell you."

"Argh, forget it!" Dally yelled as he ruffled his own hair in frustration. "Iops don't think. Iops _do_ things. If faced with a challenge, we adapt to it. I can do this. I am Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove!" He struck a confident pose and smirked proudly at himself.

"You know, that would have been impressive if you weren't currently standing there wearing nothing but briefs." Rubi commented drily, looking as if he was quite bored out of his mind.

Blushing slightly at that remark, Dally chose to merely shut his eyes in annoyance and move forward. "Shut up, I am awesome."

Coming to a halt in front of Eva's haven bag once more, he took one last deep breath and looked up at the sky. "Iop, bless me with courage." He looked away shyly and shrugged. "Or, you know? Maybe some divine guidance?" He put his hand between him and Rubi so he wouldn't hear as Dally whispered: "Perhaps share some godly techniques with your favorite disciple, eh?"

Silence.

"Come on, man! This is Eva we are talking about here. I can't screw this up!" His eyes shone in desperation as he begged his god for some divine intervention only to be scorned with even more silence, causing the young knight to scowl at the sky in frustration.

"Or not. Whatever. Who needs you anyway? Screw you…I will manage this myself, like I always do. Useless gods, feels like talking with yourself most of the time anyway…" He grumbled to himself and opened the bag at last to climb into it. When it came to it, it was best to just count on one's own strength and instincts instead of relying on whimsical things like gods who would often let you down. This had been one of the first lesson he had ever learned as a small boy and that fact would likely never change. You could pray all you wanted, but real change had to always be brought with your own two hands, or fists. Whichever suited you more. For Dally, it was the latter most of the time.

Either way, after the grotesque sensation of being swallowed whole by an inanimate object, the young knight found himself softly descending to the floor of a bigger version of Eva's pouch he had just looked at from the outside. On first glance it was a lot smaller than Ruel's bag but still managed to give him the impression of actually having more available space due to its contents seemingly having been arranged in an orderly fashion instead of having been left on the spot the owner had last used them in. Plus, it also smelled better in here, too.

"Woah." The young knight gasped in awe as he spotted all those things Eva carried around in her bag. There was a small area with potted plants neatly placed next to one another, being shone on by magical mushrooms that could glow in the dark. Amalia had called them phospores once, or something…if he recalled correctly. The plants' scent reminded him of the one Evangelyne's favorite tea had, so this must be where her tea leaves came from.

Not far from there was a small desk with a chair in front of it. A study perhaps, given how there were a bunch of books stacked up next to it. Given the fact that the candle on the desk had nearly used up all of its wax and was in desperate need of a replacement, it was fairly obvious to even him that whoever used it had spent plenty of time sitting there. From the looks of it, someone had even written something into what appeared to be a journal recently. The handwriting was quite elegant and fancy, making it hard to read in the dim light, which was probably for the better, given how girls very much disliked when you read their journals. He would know, having accidentally done so with Amalia's once. Granted, it might have been a bad idea to read it out aloud to Ruel and Yugo as well, but at least everyone got to share a hearty laugh with each other that way before getting nearly squeezed to death by thick and thorny vines. He grinned at the memory. Good times.

He could also spot a workbench with various crafting materials and bow components still resting on it. Undoubtedly a place to keep your weapons in shape which he would have to do as well, if it weren't for Rubi being nearly indestructible and therefore quite user friendly to wield. A luxury Eva didn't seem to have, apparently, or else this stuff wouldn't be here, he mused. He briefly considered looking out for a Shushu bow for her to use from now on, but immediately frowned once he realized how much of a pain Rubi could be at times. Twice the amount of Shushu weapons meant twice the power, but it would also mean they would get twice the annoyances going on their nerves constantly. Not to mention those pesky Shushus were always trying to possess you. Sure, Rubi was a good guy now, but he was an exception. Dally frowned bitterly at the image of Eva getting mind controlled by one of these monsters. Eh, perhaps she was better off with just a normal bow then. Better safe than sorry, right?

As he moved on, he eventually spotted Eva, hastily throwing in stuff into a chest and slamming it shut, followed by wiping off some sweat that had gathered on her forehead as she sighed in a mixture of relief and exhaustion.

"Need some help?" He asked her, visibly startling her as she spun around to meet his gaze. Her shock was soon to fade, replaced by a gentle smile.

"Ah, there you are. Nope, I am good." She told him with a quiet laugh, fiddling around with her hands awkwardly as she casually pushed the wooden chest back against a pile of other stuff with one foot. "Truth to be told, I kinda forgot I left a mess last time I was in here, so I appreciate that you left me some time to tidy up the place a bit before coming in. What can I say, I never actually thought I would eventually end up inviting someone else in here, haha."

He offered her an understanding smile and shrugged. "You didn't have to go through the trouble, really. We've been to Ruel's bag and after seeing that junkyard, nothing's gonna shock me anymore. Compared to that, this actually puts the 'haven' into 'haven bag', you know?" He grinned at his own little joke and was pleased when he heard her giggling a bit in amusement as well.

"I am not sure how much of a compliment that is, since even a waste bin would look heavenly next to Ruel's bag while also smelling three times more pleasantly, but I appreciate it nonetheless." She spread out her arms excitedly to proudly present her personal sanctum with a big grin. "Anyway, welcome to my humble bag. It isn't much, but please do feel right at home." She scratched her cheek shyly, though, looking slightly ashamed about something.

"To be honest, I am still missing many necessities in here and I can't offer you much in terms of food, but at least it's better than sleeping out there on the ground, no?"

He smirked at her. "You kidding? This place is awesome. I would kill to have one of these things for myself." His eyes shone as he pictured how the inside of his own haven bag could look like. Full of training dummies and weapons. He gasped briefly once he realized: He could open up his own Dojo or something! Rad! But he digressed…shaking off those delusions, he quickly added: "Anyway, if you need some help setting this place up, just give the word. I can place whatever furniture you have wherever you need." He flexed his right arm and patted his muscles confidently. Just leave the heavy lifting to him.

"That's kind of you, but I will first have to buy more stuff to place in here first. Unlike Ruel who only claims to be broke, I actually kinda am…" She admitted with a deep sigh, putting both her hands on her hips. She didn't need to tell him she had blown almost all her kamas trying to spread the legend of the redheaded warrior all around the world. Sure, it had seemed like a nice gesture for a fallen hero, but kiiiiinda made her seem like a groupie now that it turned out he wasn't really dead. Realizing this, she immediately buried her face in her hands, feeling nothing but shame and regret. How embarrassing…! Oh well, if the book sold well enough, she would eventually make a nice profit from it in a few years, so who knew…maybe it hadn't been a total bust to write it?

She looked at her redheaded knight from the corner of her eyes. Oh Cra, just please don't let him actually read it. You had to be careful with stroking this man's already bloated ego any further. She would never hear the end of it…

"Something wrong?" The redheaded Iop asked her while tilting his head in wonder, only to see her gently shaking her head, followed by taking him by the hand while rubbing her eyes tiredly with her other one, unbeknown to her that her mere touch already sent electricity through his body.

"This way, my valiant knight. Let's finally get some rest before the night is all over, shall we?"

"R-right." Dally muttered absent-mindedly, noticing how his own stare was now fixated on her well defined figure as she led him through a narrow corridor of boxes and sacks filled with adventure gear like tents, torches and various other stuff he did not give a crap about, now that her captivating body had his undivided attention. As he watched her hips swaying from left to right ever so slightly with each of her steps she made, he silently wondered if her walk had always been this mesmerizing. Like a Xelor's pendulum rhythmic swaying it slowly casted a spell of hypnotism on him he neither could nor wanted to escape. He also couldn't quite tell if he should thank that tree or curse it for throwing them into that lake in the first place and causing them to end up walking around in just their underwear. On one hand, he got to see so much of her marvelous and smooth skin, but on the other hand, it filled him with the desire to get over there and kiss every single one of her adorable freckles one. By. One. And don't get him started with how desperately he wanted to feel up that plumb, ripe bottom of hers that was _still _rhythmically swaying before him.

He gulped down all that saliva that gathered in his mouth as he shook his head to get back to his senses. By Iop, how much he wished Rubilax had just kept his mouth shut to keep his oblivious mind off these thoughts until he would eventually make the connection himself. Sure, he was often teased by his peers for being slow on the uptake, but sooner or later, he always got the picture when it really mattered. It would have been way easier for him to catch on to certain cues he was sure Eva would have given him since she was a smart girl who knew how to steer him into directions without him even noticing he was being guided until way after it had happened. Instead, he was now made aware about all of this from the get-go and he suddenly didn't know where to even look anymore.

Now that his eyes were open to all these _sexy _aspects of his girlfriend, they started getting registered by his adolescent mind, making them pretty much all he could think about anymore. Like a dam that had been violently broken, letting an uncontrollable number of stimuli flood his brain without restraint. Suddenly, he very much knew what he needed and wanted to do as he realized his Iopish instincts didn't leave him hanging, but man was he shocked at the sheer animistic nature of all this carnal desire welling up inside him. He almost felt like a wolf ready to devour a sheep and that was the exact problem. As a knight, he wanted nothing more than to protect and cherish this woman. As a man, he was the very thing he had sworn to protect her from. He soon realized that desire was one heck of a powerful emotion to experience, and the beast that had been unleashed inside him? It was not one to be easily tamed.

But then he smirked confidently at himself. He was Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove, the Iop that somehow managed to tame Rubilax back when that guy had been nothing but a demonic mess of hatred and despair, so how bad could it be to keep his _human_ desires in check? He figured he should be fine as long as Eva didn't turn around to give him a clear view on that ample chest of hers that he swore looked so soft, he bet burying his face in them would make heaven feel like child's play by comparison. He caught himself grinning stupidly at his own perverted fantasies and quickly punched himself before Eva could notice anything.

"_Get a grip, Percedal! Evangelyne is a classy woman. You need to show some class as well, not whatever _**this **_was just now."_ He scorned himself bitterly in his mind. _"Come on, focus!"_

"You alright there, Dally? You've been awfully quiet for a while now." She asked him as she turned around halfway to look at him with a smirk. "Don't tell me being to a girl's room got you all nervous?"

Dally looked at her in shock. Could this girl read his mind? He sure hoped she could not…he would be in quite some trouble if that was the case.

"M-me? N-nervous? Ridiculous." He tried to laugh it off with a crooked grin as he avoided her mischievous gaze.

"Hmm, is that so? Alright then." Eva chose to give herself oblivious to his nervousness, figuring his flustered state had merely something to do with him having entered the unknown territory of a woman for the first time. Not that she would complain…a flustered Dally was cute, too, you know?

She eventually came to a halt, letting go of his hand. While Dally was contemplating whether to silently cheer over or bemoan the sudden loss of skin contact for various reasons, the blonde Cra proudly presented her last treasure she had stored away inside of her haven bag.

A bed.

A small bed.

Please don't tell him-

"Ta-da! I actually got a bed in here. We can actually sleep on a soft mattress like civilized people!" She grinned proudly, although not without realizing a crucial flaw in her plan as well, given how she lowered her gaze apologetically. Scratching the back of her neck awkwardly, she blushed ever so slightly as she threw glances at him from the corner of her eyes. "Although it is rather small. As I said, I never thought I would be bringing guests here, so I don't have any guest beds or anything. But don't worry, I am rather slim, so we should be able to share the limited place if we cuddle a bit."

A certain part inside him cheered: _YEEEEEEES_

Another one screamed: **NOOOOOO**

Oh Iop, please have mercy on him. Wait, maybe he could…

"That won't do! As a man of honor, I shall offer the bed to the lady while I make do with the floor." He declared decisively. Hah! Nailed it! Now he wouldn't have to put Eva into any unnecessary danger anym-

"Absolutely not!" She was quick to shoot him down determinedly, albeit very hastily and with a panicked expression. Realizing herself how weird that must seem to him, she was quick to clear her throat to try and find a reasonable explanation to seem less suspicious. No way in hell would she let this chance slip through her fingers. She could fall asleep being held by these big strong arms, nudging herself closer into his embrace to get engulfed in the warmth of his gorgeous body. Best way to fall asleep. Ever. She bet she would sleep like a baby that way. She absolutely had to try. That's why she came up with:

"What kind of girlfriend would I be if I were to let my boyfriend sleep on the cold, hard floor while lounging away in my warm, soft bed. You are my knight, after all. Not my dog. So it's fine, it's fine! Please, lie down. I insist."

Well, since she insisted…

Argh, no! This was bad! Definitely bad! He needed to find a way to talk himself out of this…

But that was the problem now, wasn't it? In a contest of strength, Dally was unmatched, but a battle of words was more in her favor…especially considering how easily she could render him speechless by merely giving him _that_ look.

You see, Eva was a very smart woman. When they had first met, she had tried ordering him around like a subordinate soldier, which hadn't worked so well for her. You would think she would grow frustrated and stop bothering, right? Except, she had instead changed her approach. Instead of enforcing her way on him, she had developed a technique he would always refer to as _the _look. The one where she kept looking up at him with those sparkling eyes of hers whenever she needed something of him, accompanied by that adorable smile that could even melt the eternal ice wastes of Frigost. If she felt especially crafty, she would even add a cute and soft "Please…" to that…whenever that happened, his mind would always black out and by the next time he came to his senses, he had already caved in and done the thing she had asked of him. Yeah, it was a hellishly scary technique, let him tell you. It kinda looked like the one she was using right now and-

…

Wait a minute, when had he lied down in that bed, exactly?

Goddamnit, this girl was good!

The bed had been pushed against the bag's wall, leaving him no room to back out as Eva had climbed into the bed after him, thus preventing him from getting back up from that side either. However, as she came closer and closer, wrapping her arms around him and snuggling up to him with a content smile on her lips, he momentarily forgot why exactly this was supposed to be a bad thing again. She smelled nice, was warm and adorable to boot and she was so soft that hugging her felt like hugging a big pillow.

He sighed dreamily. Sleeping like this would be heaven.

…at least until his mind would remember what exactly that soft mass on her chest was that he was readily about to bury his face into.

"Ack!" The young Iop tensed up and nervously turned around. Urgh, close call….if he had proceeded doing what he had just been about to do, Eva would most likely have killed him…! The Cra in question could only blink in bewilderment about suddenly being faced with his back from one second to the next.

"Dally? Is something wrong?" He heard her ask in confusion. Hardly surprising, he thought, given his suspicious actions…

"A-ah, no. E-everything is fine. I just couldn't relax lying like that, so I had to shift things around a bit." He lied with a guilty grin she luckily couldn't see.

"I see." She nodded understandingly and for a moment Dally thought he might have been in the clear, but then he felt Eva's arms wrapping around him from behind as she snuggled closer once more with a content smile. Being the big spoon was fine, too, she thought. It was still odd, though…he was acting somewhat distant compared to earlier, when he had basically cuddled her to death. She frowned suspiciously…could he be hiding something?

In the meantime, Dally was busy avoiding stepping on landmines, but every time he seemed to avoid one, he accidentally stumbled upon a whole new cluster of them right afterwards. True, he might have momentarily dodged a bullet by facing away from Eva and her incredible sexiness, but…somehow she felt even _closer_ the way she was hugging him from behind now, with her breath gently tickling his neck and her gorgeous chest pressing against his back in its entirety. Weirdly enough, not actually seeing her breasts only made it worse, too, since it resulted in his fantasy to try and fill in the gaps. And that couldn't possibly end in a good way…

As became clearly evident when a certain body part of his came alive, his briefs suddenly feeling way too cramped to house his Iopish manhood. Dally sighed in disappointment. He had held out so long only to fail in the end with suppressing his urges. But hope was not yet lost…if he managed to stay in his current position, maybe Eva wouldn't notice until she fell asleep…

"Nope, something's definitely weird." Eva concluded annoyedly as she eyed him over his shoulder, causing him to nervously flinch and hide his aroused manly parts under both his hands so she wouldn't see. What the hell, was this Cra psychic or something!?

"W-what is?" Dally asked her nervously, feigning ignorance.

"You are. You think I wouldn't notice? Normally not even a hurricane could rip you off me and suddenly you are staying away on your own accord? Something's wrong and you are trying to hide it, so what is it? Are you feeling sick? Did you catch a cold?" She asked him suspiciously as she touched his forehead to check if he had a fever. Well, he was awfully hot, so maybe he really had one? That's when her eyes travelled down to his hands and noticed him trying to hide something from her sight which immediately caught her interest. An injury from the fall before, perhaps? That would be so typical for him to hide from her, she thought. Narrowing down her eyes on him in suspicion, she let her hand travel down towards his to remove them from whatever they were trying to hide from her.

"W-wait, Eva! Don't!"

But she wasn't listening to him at all. Removing his hands determinedly, she was immediately greeted by…something very big pressing against the insides of his briefs. She blinked a few times in her perplexment before realization eventually befell her and her face grew hot from shame.

"O-oh." Was all she said as she hastily let go of him and turned around awkwardly, trying to hide her blush with her hands. So that's what it had been…now his actions kind of made perfect sense…

She furrowed her brows. In hindsight, maybe she should have been able to figure it out on her own instead of acting like such an idiot right now, but then again, he hadn't shown any such reactions earlier so it had totally slipped her mind that _this _could have been the reason for his uncharacteristically distant behavior.

"Ah, please don't be mad, Eva. It's just…Rubi said some things and suddenly I couldn't stop noticing how…well…hot you are and…well…this happened." She heard him suddenly try to explain himself worriedly, thinking he had somehow screwed up. This made her merely face him again, albeit still blushing madly.

"You Iop brain, why would this make me mad? It's a perfectly normal, natural reaction." She looked away embarrassedly, playing around with a few strands of her hair. "In fact, I think I should feel flattered that you react that way towards me."

"Well, naturally. I mean, have you looked at yourself…?" Dally couldn't help but note as he scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Sometimes it's hard to take my eyes off you, you know? No matter what you do, you are either super cute or smoking hot…and it's captivating my mind all the same."

She pressed a finger against his lips, eying him with a stupefied grin. "S-s-s-stop! I can't handle all these cute words at once. My mind will melt." She closed her eyes and shook her head excitedly, unable to contain her happiness over his compliments. Too much sweetness would make her go crazy again, no doubt.

This made him smirk at her as he leaned over her to kiss her lips gently. "See, now we are back to cute again."

She accepted the kiss with no resistance, seemed to welcome it even. The faint voice of reason that kept screaming at her to be on her guard was quickly disregarded in favor of focusing more on her redheaded knight and the sweet things he said and did to her. Ah, she was getting infatuated with him again…maybe her voice of reason was right to warn her, after all? Wasn't this getting…dangerous?

But as her lovely Iop kept showering her with his love and affection, gently placing kisses all over her, her ability to care about that fact seemed to get dismantled systematically with each move of his body. Speaking of his body…now that he was so awfully close, she actually got to feel all of these hard and defined muscles pressing against her. Cra, wasn't this kinda…sexy? Especially that hard bulge between his legs that had kept grazing her thighs for a while now. Say, wasn't that actually a pretty big package he sported there? Granted, she hadn't been unfamiliar with the idea that a man's privates would grow to enormous sizes…this phenomenon had been rather well described in most of the, well, _adult_ novels she had been reading from time to time, after all. But she had never _actually _seen this herself. A curios and adventurous smirk crept up her lips as she considered whether or not it would be fine to take a peek, perhaps. For science?

"_Whoa, whoa, whoa! Time out, girl. Now listen here just a second."_ Eva's mind suddenly constructed a place that looked like some sort of office before her inner eye. It was very structured and tidy with all of the files and documents neatly stored away in cabinets. A small wooden desk stood in front of her with a clone of herself sitting behind it, facing her with a calm expression and her hands casually folded before her. This copy of her clearly was supposed to be another version of Eva, albeit this one was entirely clad in formal wear as you would expect of an office clerk. Her hair was still long but stuck up neatly behind her head and she also wore glasses for some reason the real Eva couldn't quite comprehend. Cras didn't wear glasses. They all saw perfectly fine for miles. During thunderstorms. With one eye closed.

The formal Cra seemed to be able to notice Eva's concerns which was why she seemed to blush slightly as she pushed the glasses back up against her nose. "_Those are there to make me look smarter. Are they that bad?"_

Eva shrugged, more concerned with this place than this imaginary Cra's weird fashion sense. One second she was having a good time with Dally in her haven bag and now she was sitting here with a serious looking copy of herself for no reason whatsoever. She sighed at that, wishing she could just get back to the place she had left behind unwillingly…

"_That's the exact problem, Evangelyne."_ Her serious clone told her as she took out an abacus to perform some calculations in her head, pushing stones left and right in quick succession. _"According to my calculations, this whole situation is getting way out of hand. I mean, I know you are very much in love and all, but you just shared your first kiss with Dally today and now me ware already moving on to intercourse? Aren't things progressing a bit too fast here?"_

Eva looked down, as if a bit ashamed. Well, now that this girl mentioned it…maybe she really was getting a bit carried away…? But then again, now that she had already started treading down the path of love, she was naturally curious where it might lead her…

Considering how nice the trip had been so far, it may not have been unreasonable to be excited about how much better the rest could possibly become. Plus, in the books she had been reading, sex had always been described in so much _detail_. Sure, it sounded awfully naughty and embarrassing, but the characters in the novels always seemed to enjoy it. It couldn't be helped that she would grow curious about it as well now, could it?

"_You are absolutely right there, Evangelyne." _Came the voice of yet another copy of herself, albeit not the proper one before her. As both, the real Eva as well as the proper clone raised a brow at the newcomer that had just appeared next to them out of thin air, said newcomer merely took a seat next to Eva, grinning widely at her and offered her a handshake.

Contrary to the proper Cra, this Cra barely seemed to wear anything at all aside from the bare necessities to keep her private parts hidden. Her hair was long and open and her skin was adorned with what seemed to be tribal markings of some sort. Albeit this version of Eva lacked very much in the clothing department, she still seemed to make up for that with a very impressive aura. Everything around her seemed to radiate in what seemed to be a mixture of fire and energy. This woman literally glowed from excitement. Eva wasn't sure whether it was because of that aura or not, but this copy of hers seemed a lot sexier and mature for some reason, too. Wow, could she really look like that?

"_Greetings, I am Desire. I see you have already met Reason, so let's get straight to the point."_

Eva eyed the new copy of herself confusedly as the strangely cheerful Cra shook her hand with quite some vigor. The real Eva was briefly worried her sparsely clothed copy might accidentally yank her arm off or something. Strangely enough, though, the moment her hand had touched the fiery woman's one, a certain warmth and energy had started spreading all around her. She felt like she could challenge the world like that.

"_Sex is awesome. Please proceed immediately at your heart's content." _She explained to her briefly before pulling her out of her chair, turning her around and trying to shove her away from Reason and out of her office. Presumedly back to Dally where the action was going on.

Eva raised a brow at that. Wait, that's it?

"_Yup. There is nothing to talk about here. Sex is something to experience, not to theorize. Which is why talking about it to Reason is nothing but a waste of breath." _Desire told her casually, still trying to push her out of the office.

"_Now hold it just a damn second there!" _Reason suddenly got in their way, blocking them from leaving the office with quite an angry expression. _"You can't just barge in here, Desire! This is __**my**__ office. And I wasn't done talking."_

"_But talking is all you ever __**do**__. Don't do this, don't do that. Bor-ing. Let Eva have fun for once. It won't kill you."_

"_And how would you know that?" _Reason eyed Desire accusingly as she walked up to the nearest file cabinet to sort throughits contents hastily. _"We have no previous experience about intercourse stored anywhere. As far as I am concerned, there is no reason to assume it __**wouldn't**__ kill us. We are still unprepared! We must abort!"_ Reason smacked the cabinet shut and declared her absolute refusal to proceed like this to Desire.

Eva watched Reason approaching her kindly, taking Eva's hand into hers with a smile.

"_Now please listen to me, Eva. I am the one who kept you safe until now. Whenever you were about to face something dangerous, I was the one who warned you about it. I have saved you many times from doing dumb mistakes, so won't you listen to me again? This is a mistake. Let's stop, alright?"_

Ah, but…Eva's gaze went downwards in sadness. Maybe she was right, after all? There was no reason she had to go all out tonight, was there?

Desire was seen folding her arms in front of her chest, uttering a frustrated "Tch."

"_Don't listen to that coward. Sure, she keeps you safe, but she is also keeping you from a lot of fun, too. Wasn't she the one who told you not to fall in love with Dally, too?"_

Eva frowned at that, stepping away from Reason in what seemed to be defiance. Yeah, what the hell was up with that?

Reason started sweating nervously. _"Oh, come on! You know why I made that call. There was no reasonable data to support the possibility of it being a good choice. I'll admit, I may not always be right, but I tend to be 90% of the time." _She pushed up her glasses confidently and smiled. _"That's a good enough ratio to warrant listening to me, no?"_

Eva folded her arms in front of her chest and eyed Reason critically. Yeah, it was a good ratio, but she had still been terribly wrong before, so she could be wrong now, too. If Reason was all about using references to determine whether an option was a good one to take or not, where was her data that suggested that doing lewd things with Dally would lead to bad consequences?

Reason lifted up a finger to signal for her to wait a second as she ran up to another file cabinet to search for Eva's requested data. Soon after, she produced a bunch of paper scrolls she hastily started showing to Eva.

"_For one, there is pregnancy. Nasty stuff, or so I have heard. Makes you get infested with a parasite for approximately nine months which then get very hard and painful to remove again…"_ Reason told her while pointing at a picture of an embryo on her scroll, then compared it to a picture of an actual parasite from a different scroll.

"_Those are called children, Reason." Desire deadpanned, clearly not impressed. Reason was quick to object to that._

"_Wrong! That's what they become once removed. Until then, by definition, they behave like any common parasite! Now Eva, why would you willingly get infected by parasites?"_

Eva seemed to be worried for a second before she suddenly remembered something and started scowling at Reason. Wait a second, just like Iops have lower intelligence, so did Cras have lower fertility…to assume she would get pregnant just like that was quite…unreasonable.

Desire chuckled amusedly and raised her hand for a high five to share with Eva which the latter did with a smug grin. Good one.

Reason flinched and proceeded to run to the next cabinet. _"Hold on, I have more!"_

While Eva waited for her to gather more proof with a bored expression, she noticed how Desire had walked over to a different cabinet and produced a book Eva quickly recognized as one of the adult ones she had read recently. Her eyes opened up wide in shock once she saw Desire casually lean against said cabinet, flipping open the book and starting to read out one of the more _explicit_ passages. She did so with quite the expressive voice that could have easily put an experienced actor to shame, sounding short on breath as she moaned and gasped while reading out the heroine's inner monologues. Eva and Reason cringed in utter shame and quickly stormed her from one second to the next, faces gleaming red from embarrassment. Eva pressed Desire's mouth shut while Reason took the book out of her hands to store it away in a different cabinet hastily.

"_D-d-don't read erotica out loud all of a sudden. Don't you have any shame?"_ Reason tried to scold Desire who only shrugged at that casually.

Eva eventually removed her hand from Desire's mouth with a deep sigh, happy that it was over. However, the wilder clone only smirked back at her knowingly.

"_Sounds interesting, doesn't it?"_

Eva looked away embarrassedly, not really wanting to admit how interesting it really had sounded.

"_More like embarrassing…"_ The proper clone whined as she hid her still blushing face from sight with both her hands. _"Imagine we actually sounded like that…"_

Desire's eyes began shining in anticipation. _"Yes, imagine how good we would have to feel to produce such sounds!"_

Eva gulped nervously. My, my, was it her or was it getting hot in here?

"_No, Eva! Resist!" _Reason warned her by grabbing her by her shoulders, trying to shake the madness out of her._ "You wouldn't want Dally to hear you like this, right? What would he think?"_

"_Oh I am sure he would think very highly of it…" _Desire told Eva with a playful wink before addressing Reason listlessly again. "…_why do you care anyway, Reason? By the time we are at the point to sound like that, I can guarantee you that neither of us will be clear enough of mind to even remotely care about how embarrassing it is."_

Reason gasped in utter shock. _"You mean we will be out of it?" _She hastily formed a big X with both her hands and yelled:_ "Then we absolutely can't! A Cra's senses always have to remain sharp, right Eva?"_

Eva massaged the back of her neck awkwardly. Well, technically yes, but actually…whenever Dally kissed her and made her _stop_ thinking about everything around her so much…those moments were actually kind of nice, you know? To imagine she would lose herself in her own pleasure and forget all her worries for once was quite…_compelling. _She caught herself grinning dreamily at her own thoughts.

This, in turn, only made Desire's smirk grow wider.

"_I know you wanna try it. What stops you?"_

Eva averted her gaze shyly but nudged her head into Reason's direction briefly. Her radiant clone smirked mischievously at that, forming a fist with her right hand to hit her free palm with it.

"_Leave her to me. She has kept me locked away for too long. It's payback time."_

The fiery clone casually approached the proper one who was still busy blushing at something.

"_Hey, Reason. Remember that one novel Eva read a while ago? The one where the heroine got captured and restrained?"_

"_Urgh, the kinky one. Yes, what of it?" _Reason asked her with a whiny voice, not wanting to remember the contents of said book for having been way too smutty. Eva could kind of relate to her. Sometimes she would wish she could forget ever having read that one, either. Desire held out her hands in front of her and a pair of handcuffs materialized in them.

"_Wanna try finding out what it's like to be properly restrained?" _She asked the proper clone with an exciting smirk on her lips. Said clone could do nothing but back away nervously.

"_Absolutely not! That sounds like such an unreasonable thing to do!"_

"_Oh? But I think it will be fun."_

"_S-stay away from me, you m-monster!"_

Eva gulped as she slowly backed out of the office, not even sure if she wanted to know how exactly Desire intended to keep Reason busy. This weird delusion had gone on for long enough already as it was, so she wordlessly kicked open the door and stormed out of the imaginary room. As she expected, the fantasy ended right afterwards, sending her back exactly where she had been before. Cra be praised that this was finally over. Here's to hoping her reasoning wouldn't get in the way any longer.

She was currently in the middle of sharing an intimate kiss with her lovely knight with him slightly leaning over her. Deciding that she would go for a more active role for now, she gently pushed him back without breaking the kiss so that their roles were now reversed.

"Hey Dally?" She asked him once their lips parted again.

"Yes?"

"I couldn't help but notice that _this_…" She gently grazed the quite obviously erect part of him that was still hiding under his underwear with her knee while looking away shyly. "…situation doesn't seem to improve at all."

He laughed nervously at her pointing that out. "Well, I wouldn't count on it changing anytime soon. Like I said, you have that kind of effect on me, so…"

She smiled at him. "I figured as much, but isn't it uncomfortable that way?"

His expression changed into quite a conflicted one as he offered her a deep sigh. "It is. A lot. Honestly speaking, I had more room being stuck in Rubi's prison than my junk has in those briefs…"

This made her giggle as she gently stroked his hair, leaning in closer to his ear as she whispered: "Aww, my poor knight. Well, seeing how I seem to be the main cause of your discomfort, perhaps I should do something to fix this?"

She had blushed while she had said that but drew some satisfaction out of the fact that he seemed way more flustered about her words than she was. Such a cute reaction.

"Y-you mean…?" His own question was interrupted by him gulping audibly.

"Uh-huh." Since he had been saying all these cute things to her earlier, she felt she needed to properly thank him in kind. And what was a better way to do that but helping him out with his little _arousal_ problem that currently plagued him? Plus, it gave her a perfect excuse to throw a look on his dick which had piqued her curiosity ever since she had seen how big his bulge had become. It was finally time to put the books aside and gain some actual hands on experience for once.

"I…I'll be in your care, then." He told her as he scratched his cheek nervously.

She lied down next to him and put her right hand on his stomach, letting it gradually slide down towards his crotch and eventually slipping under his underwear. Now it was her turn to gulp as she approached the moment of truth. Her hand took hold of something warm and quite stiff. So this was it, she thought, as she gently freed her Iop's penis from the painful restraints that were his underwear by pushing the fabric back. Dally immediately sighed in relief while Eva couldn't help but gasp slightly at the sight.

What the hell? This thing was even bigger than her hand! This was supposed to fit inside a woman? Her? H-how? Last time she checked, her pussy wasn't some kinda haven bag, you know? Now this couldn't be right…

"Dally…?" She said his name troubledly. Noticing her worry, he grew sort of nervous as well.

"Y-yeah?"

"Is this thing always this big when you get excited?"

"Yes? I-is that a problem?" By Iop, please don't let that be a problem.

She frowned, lost in thought. "I am not sure yet."

"_He is gonna break me_!" She cried internally. According to her knowledge, this thing was supposed to make her feel good, but she just wasn't seeing how this could work. She forced herself to take deep breaths. Calm down, Eva. One thing at a time. First, let's take care of this…what was it called in the books? Handjob?

"Please tell me if I am doing it wrong, alright?" She told him nervously to which he nodded. Then she took a firm grip on his shaft, careful to not use too much force.

"Your hand is soft." He noted, sounding somewhat impressed. "As expected, it feels different when a girl does it."

"I take it that's a good thing?" She asked him amusedly as she began stroking his dick up and down gently, carefully watching how he would react. The wasn't much of a difference she could notice outside of him taking a deep breath. He then seemed to relax more and more where he had previously been tense. She figured that was a good sign, so she continued, using the opportunity to experiment around with speed and the strength she used on her grip.

It wasn't hard to figure out how much strength she needed to use since Dally's face was the exact opposite of a pokerface. He would show her the exact second it became too much by frowning slightly. Once she noticed that, she pretty much immediately knew how hard she needed to grip his dick. Speed, on the other hand, appeared to be quite tricky. From the way he would occasionally suck in his breath once she picked up her up-and-down-movements, you would assume speeding up was the key to more pleasure, yet when she tried to confirm the theory by slowing down, it didn't lead to bad reactions, either. So, if she got this right, the speed didn't seem to matter all that much as long as she continued to pull his foreskin back in regular intervals. Well, sounded easy enough.

She noticed him burying his face in her neck, kissing it affectionately and causing her to giggle at the sensation. "Are you feeling good, Dally?"

"Yep. You are doing great." He commended her, but eventually got distracted by her chest. Those two gorgeous mounds of flesh that he already _knew_ were softer than pudding and surely must have been even twice as tasty to kiss and lick, he would bet. He threw a bashful gaze her way. "Um, Eva?"

"Hm?"

"Could I, you know…" He pointed at her breasts and looked away embarrassedly.

"Oh." She blushed once she realized what he meant. Well, she had been aware of men's obsession with female bosoms, so this request hardly came as a surprise. It still was a bit embarrassing though.

But then she realized she was basically already playing with his dick so why was she even giving a fuck. She sat up for a second to unhook her bra, now merely fixing the loose garment to her body with her hands alone. She noticed her boyfriend's big eyes shining is sweet anticipation about finally witnessing the grand premiere of his girlfriend's boobs being unveiled to him and couldn't help but giggle at his silliness.

"Are they really that fascinating?" She asked him in wonder to which he only nodded strongly, unable to even form words with how distracted he was. Shaking her head at his antics, she eventually let the curtains fall, leaving her beautiful bosom on full display. Her boyfriend gasped in awe like a kid seeing snow for the first time. His reaction was so adorable, she ended up getting flustered because of it. Lying down back next to him to resume her previous actions, she looked at him and smiled:

"Didn't you want to touch them?"

Dally had to shake his head to get back to his senses but didn't need any further invitations. Slowly and carefully, his hands travelled up to her breasts. There, he slowly allowed his hands to sink into them. His hands were warm and rough, Eva noted while focusing back on jerking her Iop off. Something had begun leaking out of the tip of the penis. She used a finger to check out it's consistency only to realize that it was less sticky than she would have thought. If she had had to compare it to something she knew, she would say it was kind of like saliva? So pre-cum was like that, huh…

Dally was getting absorbed with her boobs in the meantime, cupping them in his hands curiously and softly pushing into them from different directions. They were soft and bouncy like jelly and honestly quite a blast to play around with. He grinned in satisfaction. This was great! Speaking of great…Eva's movements on his dick started feeling pretty damn awesome, too.

He was playing around with her boobs so much that Eva eventually started noticing some weird sensations as well. Her breasts had started feeling heavier and more sensitive to his touch the longer he kept fondling them. It's gotten to the point that even just feeling his breath graze over them could feel _really_ intense. Somehow focusing on his dick alone became harder with every passing second.

When Dally noticed her cute little nipples getting erect from excitement, he really couldn't help but let a finger wander up to one of them to graze it. However, the moment he touched it, he noticed Eva flinching slightly.

"Something wrong?" He asked her.

"Ah, no. They are just very sensitive, so that surprised me a little." She explained to him with a smile. It _had_ felt kinda nice…for some reason the experience seemed to be way stronger when done by someone else other than herself. Either way, her explanation had only gotten her boyfriend more interested.

"Sensitive, huh…? So what if I do this?" He started tracing circles around her areola with his fingers, occasionally grazing her nipples while he was at it. Eva closed her eyes and whimpered slightly. That felt really ticklish and…nice. That was why it was really unfortunate to see his teasing movements growing slower. Once she opened her eyes again to see why, she was quick to notice how his eyes were closed now as well with his breathing being heavier. At the same time, she saw how his hips kept moving occasionally, trying to "thrust" his dick into something that wasn't there.

Ah, she saw how it was…he must have lost focus due to getting close, huh. Her actions must have been paying off then.

"…Eva…I…" He gasped but couldn't quite form a full sentence, apparently. My, did he feel that good?

"Cumming?" She asked him with a sweet voice. Unable to even speak, he just nodded while uttering a soft whimper. This made her smile as she kissed him on the cheek and whispered: "Then cum for me, Dally."

At the same time, she started jerking him off faster, figuring that it would likely feel better for him that way. When she saw him clutch the bedsheets in extasy, she just knew her intuition had been right.

"Ah, Eva…!" He moaned one last time before kicking his feet back in pleasure and a stream of semen kept gushing out in waves. Right as it had started coming out, he had hastily put his own hand over hers to make her stop moving, resulting in her merely continuing to pull his foreskin down as if imitating one last, deep thrust. If male orgasm was anywhere close to female ones, she figured his dick was probably too sensitive to handle any more of the regular movements she had performed up until now, which was why he had made sure to stop her at this point. She would make note of that for the future.

While her boyfriend was catching his breath momentarily, the blonde Cra couldn't help but be amazed at the sheer amount of sperm he had produced in the blink of an eye. Quite a lot had landed on her own hand, making her play around with it a bit. It was thicker and stickier than pre-cum. Also warm. Didn't seem to smell of anything of note, either, which she found slightly surprising. It was honestly not even half as gross as she thought it would be. She quickly used the bed's blanket to wipe away any cum that had landed on her or Dally. She figured they would likely not use it much anyway, given how it was a fairly warm in her haven bag.

"Eva!" She suddenly felt Dally putting his arms around her as he snuggled close to her. "That. Was. Awesome." He told her with a huge grin.

"Glad you liked it." She told him with a proud smirk, followed by shrugging confidently. "What can I say? I am a quick learner."

That was the moment he began leaning over her with a confident smirk of his own. "And I am a man of honor which means I ought to return the kindness that was bestowed upon me." He took her hand into his and kissed its back gently.

"I think I have a favor to return to my lovely Cra."

Eva blushed madly and averted her gaze with a shy smile. "Well, if you wanted to continue where you left off earlier, I wouldn't oppose." Her gaze found his again, looking up to him bashfully. "I was kind of getting into it, I think."

"It would be my pleasure, milady." He chuckled eagerly as he went in for a kiss while his hands went back to their earlier position, caressing her ripe chest fondly.

Truth to be told, he was really eager to make Eva feel the same way she had just managed to make him feel, but that might not be that simple. If he remembered Ruel's advice correctly, he would do well to focus on her secondary weak spots for a while before moving on to the primary target. It sort of was really similar to dungeoneering…instead of heading straight for the boss room, you were first required to clear all the mid bosses first, which was fine with him, to be honest. He loved playing with Eva's boobs! They were really soft and bouncy and…heck, it was like having a piece of heaven right in his hands to play around with. Seriously, they were the best!

Besides, every time his fingers would "accidentally" graze her nipples, his cute little Cra would reward him with the most adorable of reactions. Watch this:

He let his thumbs, that had been patiently circling her nipples up until now, brush over her nipples ever so slightly and Eva immediately hugged him a bit harder as she purred into him during their kiss. See? Granted, it had been rather short lived, but man, he swore he had never heard anything more beautiful in all his life. This must have been what angels sound like, really!

An interesting thought befell him. If she was already reacting so fondly to his fingers, how greatly would she react if he were to try something _else_? He smiled eagerly as he broke the kiss with his lovely girlfriend who could only watch him curiously as he now approached her chest, planting loving kisses all over her ample breasts. She smiled from how ticklish it felt but couldn't say she disliked the feeling. Her fingers travelled through his fiery hair as she stroked his head. She liked how fluffy his mane felt in her hands.

His mouth had travelled closer to her nipples in the meantime, kissing its way over to her left areola and halting there momentarily. He threw a quick glance up to her and saw that she was watching him curiously, wondering what he was up to before he would smirk and quickly lick her.

"Ah!" She couldn't help but yelp in surprise at the unfamiliar sensation of his wet, yet warm tongue tracing slow circles around her now quite sensitive nipple. To claim it hadn't felt weird would have been a blatant lie, but Cra…! From the way he was starting to send quick sparks of electricity through her whole body, it would have been an even bigger lie to claim that she didn't like it! With her eyes now closed and biting on her lower lip to avoid letting out weird noises, she embraced the experience wholeheartedly.

Dally took her cute reaction as an incentive to step up his game. Why only use your tongue when you could use you whole mouth? From one moment to the next, he put his lips around her nipple, sucking playfully on it and causing his girlfriend to gasp.

"Mngh-!" She subconsciously pulled her Iop closer to her chest, not even seeming to realize that her breathing had, by now, become quite audible to him. Nothing but music to his ears. Perhaps this was a sign that it was time for him to move on to the next step? Although he had had quite the fun playing with her other breast as well, he eventually removed his left hand from it in favor of slowly travelling down her body, albeit not without savoring the smoothness of her soft skin at the same time. Gradually he found his way over her navel and her hips, deciding to play around a bit with the fabric of her panties, remembering how these hips had taunted him not so long ago, swaying from left to right as they had. Now they finally were in his grasp and he couldn't help feeling a sense of accomplishment from it. Moving on from there, he eventually travelled further down to her thighs where he found himself entranced by their softness.

Like with her breasts, she also had a bit of fat here that allowed your hands to grip something, but at the same time, it was a lot more tender due to her muscles below. He could immediately tell she had incredibly strong legs from just feeling those up and couldn't help but smile in admiration. It was like his lovely Cra was the perfect blend between beauty and strength. Honestly, could she get any more perfect?

"You are such a tease, Dally…" Her soft words eventually brought him out of his trance. Looking up to her, he saw her pouting at him impatiently. Looks like someone couldn't wait any longer. He had been right, after all. It had been time to move on.

"Ah, sorry. I guess I spaced out for a second there." He apologized to her with a cute grin. "I keep learning more and more amazing things about my lovely Cra, so it can't be helped."

She couldn't help but shake her head at him with a smile. "Iop brain."

His eyes grew slightly wide when she brought her hands to her hips and began shedding away the last piece of clothing she still wore. Effortlessly she let it slip down her legs, only to fling it to her side carelessly afterwards. She then took his hand in hers and began guiding it towards her pussy while eying him with eyes glittering from anticipation.

"You will learn something even more amazing here, I bet."

Using two fingers to carefully slide over her entrance, he was surprised to notice how dripping wet she had already become. He hadn't even touched the insides yet but had already gathered a lot of her leaking love juices between his fingers. This made him chuckle at her in amusement.

"So I take it this means I am doing a good job?"

She looked away in shame. "Come on…d-don't make me state the obvious."

"I get it, I get it. Enough talking, am I right?" He said with a smirk as he approached her lips once more for an affectionate kiss to which she only responded by throwing her arms around his neck, moaning delightfully into him as his hand began massaging the entrance to her pussy gently. He took his time getting his fingers covered in her pleasant wetness before he decided it was time to explore the insides as well. Truth to be told, he hadn't immediately known where to correctly push into, but eventually managed to gently find his way past her folds where his two fingers immediately felt as if they were being sucked into her, which he found to be amazing. As expected, her insides were even wetter and warmer than she had been on the outside and he could feel her constantly squeezing down on him, which was downright fascinating.

Meanwhile Eva had impatiently already awaited this moment ever since she had noticed his hand travelling down on her. Not long after he had started fondling her breasts, her lady parts had begun feeling awfully tingly and wet, filling her mind with the strange desire to be touched and _filled_. But now that the time had finally come for something to finally enter her at last, she had come to realize that nothing could have ever possibly prepared for this incredibly _stimulating_ sensation.

Granted, she had done this with her own fingers before but heck, this was not even close to the same. His were bigger, stronger and, most importantly, incontrollable by her. She had no idea how he would move inside her and, honestly, it was freaking exciting that way. With how incredibly sensitive she had become by now, she doubted this could be anything _but_ a blast.

Oblivious to all this, Dally merely noted how Eva broke the kiss and began burying her face in his neck, panting heavily. He blushed at how sexy he found these noises to be. He could hardly get enough of it and her hot breath hitting his skin. Encouraged by her reactions, he stopped playing around and instead focused on causing pleasure to his girlfriend to the best of his ability. He kept pushing his fingers in as much as he could, followed by pulling them out again and repeating the action.

"Dally…!" She gasped his name in pleasure, clinging closely to him as her breathing became even more shallow. He noticed how her hips had begun grinding against his finger seemingly by themselves now and the lewd, wet noise of his fingers repeatedly penetrating her was freaking hot, too. Seeing how she was now quite into it, he chose the final trick Ruel had told him about and used his other hand to play with her clit. Eva immediately threw her head back, unable to contain the pleasure. She had already felt her climax approaching…this effectively gave her the rest.

"C-cumming!" He heard her yelling followed by clamping him with all her might. Her whole body seemed to shake briefly and her vagina basically kept sucking his fingers in which made him all the more curious how awesome it must have been like with his dick being in there instead of his fingers. Gulping down the excessive saliva that started gathering in his mouth at that imagination, he quickly shook his head to rid himself of it, choosing to check up on his beloved Cra instead.

Said woman eventually let go of him and seemed to struggle hard with just catching her breath again. Man, that orgasm sure must have been intense to wear her out like that, huh? He smirked at himself. There was nothing better than receiving your reward over a job well done. This sight right here? His lovely girlfriend smiling absent mindedly and out of breath from the sheer amount of pleasure she had just received from him? The best reward he had ever received, hands down.

"Ah….amazing." Was all she managed to mutter in between small giggles and heavy breathing. Her brain refused to aid her with forming any other words right now, as it was completely preoccupied with showing her static like some broken Xelor device. She tried looking for Dally but couldn't quite make out anything from her blurry vision and several white spots hindering her sight no matter how much she tried blinking them away. Whenever she wanted to move her limbs, she was reminded that those were still all prickly and weak as wax. No matter how you looked at it, she was pretty much out of commission for the time being. She grinned happily.

How…wonderful. Best kind of relief she had ever experienced up until now. And people honestly tried to tell her she was better off holding off on these things?

Were they mad!? Wasn't this, like, absolutely the best? For a brief moment, there had been nothing but her and Dally…no worries, no problems, no dangers. Just her, him and this incredible and overwhelming wave of _pleasure_.

She sighed contently, thinking she could very well get used to this.

"You seem content with life." She saw Dally's face entering her field of vision with a big grin, causing her to smile happily at him as well, raising her arms to take a hold of him.

"C'mere, you big lovable fool, you." She mumbled with a chuckle, taking hold of his arm and snuggling close to it like a content cat. Letting out a happy sigh, she added: "I am keeping you forever, just so you know."

He let out a big sigh of relief at that. "That's good, 'cause I think falling in love with someone else would be pretty much impossible for me at this point, you know?" He would be in big trouble emotionally if she suddenly decided she didn't want him around anymore. She blushed slightly at that.

"You won't ever need to fall in love with anyone else, so don't worry. I don't think I could ever stop loving you even if I tried."

He gently kissed the top of her head and smiled. "I am one lucky Iop, then. To call you my Cra."

She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. "Iop brain. The lucky one is me…"

He laughed quietly and scratched the back of his head. There was a pleasant silence between them for a short while before he couldn't help but notice awkwardly:

"It's a shame we are kinda back where we started, though."

She blinked at him in confusion, looking up to him. "What do you mean?"

He scratched his cheek with a meek smile and pointed at something below them. Looking into the direction his finger was pointing in, she eventually spotted the problem and flinched in surprise. There, between his legs, his huge cock was, yet again, standing at attention, ready for duty.

"What, again?" She asked him in disbelief. Wasn't there supposed to be a refractory period, or something?

"Excuse me, but do you have _any _idea how absolutely mindboggling _hot_ you just were?" He told her with a huge grin. "Remember how Grugal-whatever blasted me with fire? That was ice cold by comparison. Arctic. Brrr." He feigned being cold.

She would have laughed at his silly joke if it weren't for the fact that they were exactly at the same point they had already started earlier. Narrowing her eyes in resignation, she could do little but sigh deeply. "This is getting us nowhere."

She eyed his cock with a serious expression, thinking absent-mindedly to herself as she gently traced it with a finger, making it twitch cutely. Frankly speaking, she was still not entirely convinced that his dick could possibly fit inside her, but hot damn, just remembering how amazingly good even just Dally's fingers had made her feel just now, she couldn't help but wonder just how much _this_ thing could blow her mind. She caught herself licking her lips in silent anticipation. She really wanted to find out.

Somewhere deep in her mind, the blaring noise of an alarm siren tried catching her attention as the familiar voice of Reason tried yelling: _"Absolutely not!"_

However, it was quickly shut down again by Desire "accidentally" pulling the siren's plug with her feet while sporting a cheeky grin. There were no breaks on the fun train. Choo-choo!

"Hey, Dally." She thus addressed her boyfriend with a playful smile. "Since getting each other off individually proved to be such a bust, wanna try feeling good together next?"

"You mean…?" He gulped heavily as he pointed at his dick first, followed by her pussy, to which she only nodded slowly, albeit not without blushing ever so slightly.

"Let's pour our love out for each other to see, what do you say?" She asked him somewhat bashfully. Gosh, if you said it like that, it sounded a bit embarrassing, but also cute.

Dally couldn't believe his ears. Having sex was something only couples who really, really, really loved each other got to experience. Having Eva being comfortable with doing it with him was, like, the greatest proof of trust and affection she could have possibly offered him. Really, he was so moved, he could have started crying tears of joy right now. This woman. This Cra of his. He would cherish her for life. That, he swore on the name of Iop. He looked down on her seriously.

"Eva, I love you and to become one with you would make me the happiest Iop in the world of twelve."

She blushed madly at his words, eyes shining at his cuteness. "And me the happiest Cra. Shall we, my beloved knight?"

"With pleasure." He leaned over her, taking hold of his dick and gently rubbing it against her still wet pussy to get it lubricated properly. Eva couldn't quite suppress a giggle at the weird sensation.

"That should be enough, I think." She decided after a short while, putting her hands around him. "Now come, but please be gentle, alright?"

"You are shaking." He noticed worriedly. "Are you afraid?"

"A bit excited." She explained quickly and with a reassuring smile, followed by looking away with a bit of shame. "I am not quite sure what to expect."

He frowned and took a quick glance at his own hands. A scary thought befell him. She had good reason to be nervous…these hands that currently held her so tenderly…they were normally only ever used to inflict pain. To destroy. His expression grew somewhat sad.

"Many things I touch end up breaking…I don't want to hurt you…" He ended up admitting with a soft voice.

Her eyes grew wide from those words and she quickly put a hand on his cheek, stroking it gently.

"Hey, if there is one thing I know, then that you won't ever hurt me. Remember how Rubi couldn't even touch me when he possessed your body? What makes you think it would be different now that you have it back?"

"I hurt you before…when I broke your bow." He looked down in shame, causing her to forcibly lift his face up again to make him look at her now slightly angry face.

"Forget the stupid bow." She hissed. "It doesn't matter. _You_ matter. I trust you with all my heart, so trust yourself as well, okay?" She ended up smiling again once she saw determination return into his beautiful eyes.

Eva believed in him? Then that was good enough. He could overcome all hardships as long as he knew he had her support. There was no challenge he would shy away from, no foe he couldn't fell. With her on his side, he was indominable, unbreakable.

And if he, her shield, was unbreakable, so would she become invulnerable as well. There was nothing to worry about. He smirked and nodded at her with newfound confidence.

"I understand, Eva. Leave it to me."

"That's the Iop I love." She told him contently and rubbed her nose against his playfully. But then she remembered something and couldn't help but offer him a troubled look, sporting a crooked smile. "Ah, there is one thing…"

"What is it?" He asked her with a raised brow.

"You will likely end up hurting me a bit, after all."

"I…I will?" He eyed her worriedly. It was clear as day that he didn't want to, though.

"Probably, but that's unavoidable the first time, so don't worry. Just go slowly and let me adjust, okay?"

"Got it. I will be careful. Promise." He told her with a nervous smile, giving her a small peck on the lips.

"Thank you."

Returning to their starting positions, Dally took his dick into his hand to help it with sliding into Eva's vagina while said Cra was trying to relax as she spread her legs for him readily. Once his dick pressed against her entrance, the redhaired knight gulped one last time and threw a glance at his girlfriend who only offered him a reassuring smile and signaled for him to proceed with a nod. He took a deep breath before starting to apply a bit of pressure, making his penis push past her folds and into the promised land.

Eva closed her eyes uncomfortably at the sensation of him slowly spreading her apart but was thankful for him not slowing down and hesitating due to her discomfort. There was no easy way around this and the sooner she got though this, the better. She appreciated him trying to be careful, though. It kept the pain to a minimum.

"Are you alright, Eva?" He asked her worriedly.

"I am fine. How much is already in?" He looked down and eyed her worriedly afterwards.

"Just the tip…"

Just the-…? She cried internally. She had hoped this would be easier.

Seeing her visibly troubled by this, he tried being a gentleman and asked: "Should we take a break, perhaps?"

"No!" She decided determinedly. She was not a quitter. She was a Cra! She could do this! "Keep going."

"Okay." He approved of her determination. That was the spirit!

She brought down a finger to her lips to bite down on its nail but eventually ended up biting the whole finger instead to prevent her from screaming out as more and more of his Iopish greatness entered her. When Dally finally announced to her that he was all in, she could have sworn to Cra that there couldn't have possibly been any other words that could have made her happier in that moment than these very ones he had just used. She let out a deep sigh of relief.

"E-eva, you are crying…" He couldn't help but notice guiltily, causing her to bring a hand to her eyes to notice that he had been right. Tears really had formed there.

"I-I'm fine." She tried to tell him but noticed her voice cracking. Crap, she really was crying. Why though? It didn't hurt _that_ much…

Okay, who was she kidding, it had hurt quite a lot.

He tried kissing away her tears. "I am sorry, Eva. I tried being careful but…"

"It's fine." She told him with a slightly weepy voice, embraced him and pulled him closer to her. "Just stay with me like this for a while…" She asked of him. He did just that, holding her close in her arms, continuing to kiss away her tears as well as stroking her head soothingly so she could relax. His sweet actions filled her with a warm feeling akin to a mixture of gratitude and appreciation. She leaned into him and smiled contently until several minutes had passed.

"Thank you. I feel better now." She told him, sounding fine again. "You were very gentle and knightly. As expected of my lovely Sir Percedal."

He grinned proudly at her. "My princess deserves no less."

"Oh, you…" She giggled and ruffled his hair. "So, what do you say? Shall we start having some fun?"

Her question was met with an eager nod. "I will make up for the pain I have caused you."

"Don't worry about it. Let's just enjoy ourselves, okay?"

"I am kinda already enjoying myself here…" He admitted with a guilty grin. "Your insides feel better than heaven, Eva. And I should know, I've been there." It was warm, and wet and Iop be damned, she was so freaking _tight_. His whole dick was enveloped in pure, wet warmth. This…this was the best. It really was!

She smirked at him. "If you feel good just from this, try moving next. It might get even _better_."

"You sure it's okay?"

She nodded. "Mh-hm. Just take it slow for now."

That was all the confirmation he needed. Without further ado, he began pulling out slowly, only to push back in again. Eva closed her eyes, taking in the feeling of her Iop grinding against her deepest parts. It was an entirely different feeling from when he had used his fingers. That had been great before, but this…? He filled her up so nicely that he naturally ended up reaching all the spots his fingers previously couldn't. This certainly was quite the new…_experience_.

His hands found their way back to her boobs, fondling them eagerly like he had before. She watched him with a smile as he began sucking on her tits again, the right one this time, for variance, she presumed.

"You really like playing with my boobs, hm?"

He offered her a grin as he buried his face in them happily. "Yup. I love them. They are perfect."

She giggled at his honesty. "Well, I kinda like it when you do that, so I guess I will let you do it more often from now on. But only when we are alone, got it?"

He offered her a cheeky grin. "Now I don't wanna return to the others again for some reason."

She returned his grin while narrowing her eyes at him playfully. "Perv. What would Yugo say if he ever found out his best friend ditched him in favor of playing with my boobs instead?"

He shrugged at that with a knowing smirk. "You don't get it, Eva. He's a man. He would understand."

"Right, right." She giggled in mild amusement when she saw him shifting his attention back towards her chest, unable to hold himself back any longer. She very much welcomed the sentiment…and the sensation.

As this went on for a bit, she noticed him gradually picking up speed regarding his thrusting and couldn't help holding back a cute moan that had tried escaping her lips. Oh, this was kinda starting to feel nice, huh. She begun craving the lips of her knight, which was why she kindly addressed him:

"Dally, kiss me."

He smiled at her cute demand and leaned in on her. "As my princess wishes."

His lips met hers which she begun kissing hungrily while cupping his face with her hands. Her tongue found her way into his mouth, desperately seeking company and so his own one joined her in a dance of love and passion, accompanied by the sweet song of her muffled moans. It turned him on so much, he couldn't help picking up speed once more, now thrusting hard enough to make Eva actually feel the slight knockback. She now had to actively try to not get pushed back by his forceful thrusts.

And boy did she love it. The strength in his every thrust, the feeling of his cock reaching all the way down to her deepest parts. The gushing noise her pussy-juices made whenever he rammed his rod inside her, the smell it filled the room with. She freaking loved all of it. It was hot. It was sexy. And by Cra, she wanted even _more_ of it.

She broke the kiss due to lack of air, gasping to catch some desperately needed oxygen so her lungs would stop whining and allow her to go back to kissing those gorgeous lips of her boyfriend. However, it was visibly harder now to catch her breath, now that her heart was beating in her chest in such a fast rhythm, her breathing could hardly keep up with filling her lungs with the much-needed oxygen accordingly. And thus she made do with pulling him close to her, so that his forehead would rest against hers and she could sink into his love-filled eyes instead.

"Love me, Dally." She asked of him in between her heavy panting. "Love me until I can't think anymore."

"Eva!" After hearing her say such adorable things in such a sexy voice, something inside him snapped. He no longer could think straight and hungrily assaulted her neck, kissing her vigorously while massaging her breasts with both his hands.

"Yes, Dally." She moaned sweetly into his ear, the feeling of her hot breath nearly driving him mad. "Like that. Don't hold back. Give me all you've got. Make me lose my mind."

After a while, she noticed him eventually letting go of his chest in favor of taking a firm grip on her hips, obviously needing to hold her in place so she wouldn't get pushed back by his forceful shoves. She felt the bed shake under them with his every move and cried out in excitement every time the tip of his dick kissed the entrance to her womb. And with every additional kiss, another distant part of her mind seemed to slip away, getting overridden by passion instead.

"E-Eva, I am-" She heard him grunt in pleasure and could easily tell he had already tried his hardest to prolong the inevitable and was now at his limit.

"It's okay. Give it to me, Dally! All of it!" She thus told him, feeling so greedy for his love, she could hardly wait to know how it would feel like to have it pour inside her in its entirety. It might help with the insatiable and ever growing void inside her that kept aching, begging her to be _filled_. More, give her more!

Having gotten her okay, he had no further need to hold back any longer. As he approached his climax, he began thrusting into her so rapidly, Eva could have sworn her mind had blanked out for a second there which must have been the reason why she only seemed to have registered the feeling of Dally's cum being inside her once some of it had already started leaking out of her again, dripping onto the bedsheets.

Wait, something was wrong. Why was half of the mattress not lying horizontally anymore? The frontal part was now touching the ground for some reason.

"Mhn?" This had been meant to be a question regarding the mattress but ended up being nothing but a cute sound as her disoriented mind started rearranging itself back into order and thus was in no position to form questions.

"Sorry, Eva. I think I…broke your bed." Dally told her, sounding out of breath as he confusedly looked at the broken remains of what used to be the bed's wooden frame.

Trying to catch her own breath as well, she merely sat up and looked at the damage. Yup, the part meant to hold the mattress in place had broken cleanly through, unable to shoulder the strength of her mighty lover. As a result, the mattress was now partially grounded. Seeing this, she eyed Dally in disbelief, mouth slightly gaping apart.

"Please don't be mad, Eva…" He said nervously, fearing to have inflicted her wrath by breaking her stuff. She, however, eyed him with pure adoration, still breathing heavily.

"…I love you."

"H-huh?" Not having expected this reaction, he couldn't help to look at her with quite some bewilderment. So she wasn't mad? Using his confusion, Eva quickly took his face into her hands and pulled it closer to her, planting a loving kiss straight on his lips. He melted into her hands the very next second. When she eventually let go of him again, she offered him the sweetest smile he had ever seen.

"You didn't hold back, just like I have asked of you." She snuggled up to his chest happily. "Thank you."

He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "You know, I couldn't hold back my love for you even if I wanted to, so…"

"That's good." She decided with a cheerful grin. "If you promise to keep it that way, I will promise to love you with all I've got as well. What do you say?"

"Eva, I would even give you my life if only it meant I could continue receiving your love. If it's my love you want, you shall have all of it until the end of time. I will gladly give you every bit of it, all day, every day."

She put her arms around his neck and looked him deeply into his eyes after giving him a quick peck on the lips. "Then I shall be yours as well. Body, heart and soul. Everything. Forever." They enjoyed the moment for a while before Eva couldn't help but giggle, remembering something silly.

"You know…there is this Cra custom where I should have put my bow into your hands to symbolize that I am surrendering myself to you, but…" She scratched her cheek and laughed. "I think we are way beyond that, aren't we?"

One of her hands travelled down to her crotch where Dally's sperm was still dripping out of her. The sight kind of made her smile. There was so much…

Dally assisted her with wiping it off, grinning. "I think you gave me something way better instead."

"I feel like that should be my line somehow." She said with a chuckle. "Look, it just won't stop pouring out."

He looked away slyly. "I would rather not look too much, lest I get excited again."

"A-again…?" A crooked smile formed itself on her lips which gradually transformed into a dreamy one the more she envisioned them returning to their…earlier activities. Oh no, she might really end up _breaking _if that were to happen…

But then she shook her head hastily to dismiss these delusions, realizing that sex was freaking exhausting and she no longer had the energy left to even keep her eyes open for much longer, let alone another round of lovemaking.

As much fun as it had been…

"The original plan was for us to go sleeping, though." Eva eventually reminded them both while rubbing her eyes tiredly, suppressing a yawn.

"Not with that broken bed, we won't." He laughed guiltily as he got up, lifting her up while he was at it to place her on her feet. She watched him as he effortlessly grabbed the mattress and put it on the floor so that it would at least lie horizontally again. "There, now we can at least lie on this thing properly again."

Eve quickly grabbed the pillow that had fallen to the floor and put it on the mattress, then threw herself on it next, gently patting the spot next to her once she had settled down comfortably on it. "I hope you won't shy away from cuddling anymore now that you won't have to hide your boner from me anymore." She told him with a playful grin. He laughed at that and gave her a humble bow before climbing onto the mattress after her.

"Nope. I am all yours, milady."

She felt his two strong arms wrapping themselves around her and pulling her close. Her head ended up resting on his chest, where she couldn't help tracing invisible shapes onto it with her right index finger. She felt like his embrace could possibly be the warmest and safest place she could possibly ever be in, which caused her to utter a big sigh of relief. At last, she closed her eyes, choosing to send her conscience off into the land of dreams. She had no doubts she would sleep well tonight.

Dally watched her relax in his arms with a smile and couldn't help but smile at that as well. He realized that, when it came down to it, this was really all he needed. Someone who he could love unconditionally while she did the same for him in return. As long as he had that, he wouldn't care about kamas, wouldn't even mind if it turned out that he could never return to the legend again, now that he had already fled it once. Ultimately, these things were unimportant to him now. They didn't matter. What really mattered rested in his arms currently, safe and sound. Knowing this, he could allow himself to find peace as well. His eyelids grew heavy, as did his head. He allowed himself to put it to rest next to hers, letting the sweet fragrance of her flowery hair and the soft noise of Eva's delicate breathing lull him into a pleasant slumber next to her.

…

And as Eva snoozed away peacefully, somewhere in the far back reaches of her mind two imaginary clones talked to each other:

"_Told ya it would be worth it, Reason." _Desire told her colleague with a playful chuckle. She stood in the same office as before, albeit it now looked less neat with various documents now scattered across the floor and some file cabinets having been knocked over. _"Woah, Dally sure managed to leave our girl's mind in disarray. Such a good boy, wouldn't you agree?"_

"_Ehehehe…."_ Reason could do little but push her glasses back up, grinning absent-mindedly for a second before shaking her head and returning to her work, which currently consisted of stamping a huge stack of documents in quick succession. Each of them sported a big "APPROVED" on it once she was done with them.

"_Normally I would consider damage of this kind to be __**very**__ dangerous but given the circumstances…I would say the benefits far outweigh the risks, so I will overlook it."_

She eyed Reason with a cheeky grin before adding: "_You better clean this mess up overnight so our dear Eva properly functions again tomorrow."_

She sighed in defeat and nodded. _"I've got no choice, I suppose. It's my job after all."_

"_You've got that right. By the way, what are you doing right now?"_

This time it was Reason's turn to smirk smugly. _"I am approving all further sexual actions Eva might want to partake in in the future. I'll support every single one from now on."_

Desire's grin grew wider as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. _"Ooh? Look who's developed a liking to it all of a sudden."_

Reason shrugged at her colleague's teasing, still smirking cockily._ "I'll gladly admit that I was wrong this time, but that's only because no one of you told me about this hormonal cocktail Eva's brain would release during this whole ordeal. If I had known from the start, do you think I would have opposed?"_ She sighed deeply, looking utterly relaxed. _"Girl, ever since all this stuff has kicked in, I've been higher than Mount Zenit. This feels like I am on a freaking vacation right now. Do you know the last time I had a vacation, Desire?" _The proper Cra asked the fiery one, pushing back her glasses with a smug smirk. Desire could do little but shrug cluelessly.

"_Uh…beats me."_

That's when Reason grabbed her by the collar energetically and yelled: _"NEVER! Eva NEVER takes a break from thinking! Until now. That's why…" _The proper Cra chuckled mischievously as she grabbed every last document on her desk she had just approved and handed it over to Desire as she pointed at the two of them with a confident smirk. _"…you and I will see to it that_ _today's events will repeat as often as humanely possible from now on, alright?"_

The wilder Cra of them took the documents into her possession with shiny eyes, undoubtedly already imagining all the lewd things she would cause Eva to do from now on. Giving Reason a dutiful salute, she responded with: _"Leave it to me, Ma'am. I've been born for this job, after all."_

She had barely even finished saying that before she had turned around and left the office eagerly. Better store these valuable lewd licenses somewhere where they were safe and out of reach of Reason before her drugged state would wear off and she could possibly even consider revoking them all again. Although Desire doubted Reason would actually do that, it was still better to be safe than sorry. Ah, Eva and her will have _quite_ a field trip with these from now on, no doubt.

Reason looked into the direction her new partner in crime had run off to and frowned bitterly, mumbling: _"She could have at least helped me with cleaning this place up again…"_

Then she sighed, deciding to get started by picking the first document up of the floor. This was gonna be a loooong night…

* * *

A new morning dawned.

Well, it wasn't easy to tell that from inside Eva's haven bag, but the blonde Cra had always been an early bird so she figured she could just somehow _sense_ it. Her biological clock had never failed her in all her life.

She tiredly rubbed her eyes and noticed how warm her pillow was and how it would gently rise up and down. Confused about that, she finally opened her eyes only to see she was resting on Dally's chest. A quick rush of confusion overcame her as she flinched in surprise at the unfamiliar wake-up scenery but quickly relaxed again once her memories about last night eventually returned to her.

Oh, right. That happened. More memories came flooding her mind.

She buried her face in her hands in utter shame. She could not believe she had gone that far. What had he done to her to completely turn off her rationality in favor of letting her hormones take charge? She eyed him from between the slits of her fingers, frowning slightly in defeat.

Oh well, it's not like she hadn't ended up liking it…so whatever had happened to her….maybe it wasn't a bad thing? It was just slightly worrying how quickly this guy could dismantle her sanity, turning her into a love-crazed lunatic. Dangerous. Very dangerous.

She ended up smirking at her sleeping Iop, gently letting her hand travel through his fiery mane.

The only kind of danger she would willingly put herself into without hesitation. She slowly leaned into him, whispering sweetly into his ear.

"Dally. Da~lly. Rise and shine. It's time to get up."

She had to suppress a chuckle once she noticed how quickly the corners of his lips rose up into a happy smile upon hearing her sweet voice, only to turn into a less-than impressed scowl once he heard it was time to get up.

"Only five more minutes…" He mumbled tiredly and cuddled closer to her, making her smile at him.

"Come on. If we don't get up early and find the others, everyone will be worried about us."

"Nobody aside from you wakes up this early. They will need at least a full hour to get Ruel up, let alone prepare breakfast." Dally argued listlessly as he gently rested his head on her chest, sighing dreamily. "I could sleep like this forever, honestly."

She grinned mischievously as she nibbled on his ear playfully, making him tense up immediately at the unfamiliar sensation. With a faint blush, he informed her: "E-eva, that really tickles."

"Ahaaa, I've found a weak spot!" She grinned in victory which caused him to return the look mischievously.

"Oh, are we exploiting weak spots now? Then how's this?" He quickly brought his face down to her stomach and began blowing raspberries against her skin, causing her to laugh out loud while trying to push him away.

"No! Stop! That's too much!" She quickly tried to flee but got held back by her wrist and pulled back into his arms.

"Not letting you run away." He told her with a playful grin before planting a quick kiss on her lips, which she lovingly returned. However, she brought the fun to a quick end by mildly biting him on the lip, causing him to flinch and pull back.

"That's enough. If we don't get ready soon, we won't find our way back in time. Come on." She told him with a smirk and got up.

"You are evil, Eva. Evil!" He whined but eventually followed suit. They gathered their underwear that had been discarded the night prior and got dressed again. When he spotted Eva looking at her broken bed with her right hand on her chin and her other one placed on her hip, Dally couldn't help but massage the back of his neck troubledly.

"Oh yeah. Sorry I broke your bed, Eva."

She blinked at him briefly as if not really having listened, then only laughed as she waved his concern off. "Oh? No, don't worry about it. I would have had to replace it soon anyway. It was too small for two, after all." She pulled him closer and hooked her arm into his with a seductive smirk. "Since I assume you will become a regular visitor in my haven bag from now on, am I right?"

His eyes lit up from happiness. "You mean…?"

"Well, unless you don't want to-" She mumbled nervously as she looked away and played with her hair.

"Oh, I want!" He hastily interrupted her, albeit perhaps a bit too eagerly, causing her to blink at him a bit from surprise, but then smiling warmly at him. He blushed slightly and cleared his throat. "But, you know…"

She saw him putting his index fingers together embarrassedly, eying her from the corner of his eyes.

"But…?" She asked him cutely, tilting her head to the side ever so slightly.

"What we did last night…it was so wonderful, I don't think I could hold back near you any more from now on."

This made her smirk at him knowingly as she pulled closer to him, whispering into his ear: "What makes you assume I would want you to?"

"B-but!" He tried to remain serious, although it was clear as day to her how flustered her actions made him. "…isn't that how…you know…" He leaned in closer, whispering: "…babies are made?"

This caused her to smile at him sheepishly as she massaged the back of her neck. "Well, true. But you don't have to worry that much about it. Cra's aren't known to be very fertile, after all."

She saw him folding his arms in front of his chest with a confused frown. "…What do you mean, 'Cra's aren't _for a while_?"

She sighed at him, trying to rephrase her sentence so he would understand. "Fertile. It means that for Cra's it's like suuuuper hard to make babies. I heard some even struggle for years, do you understand?"

He hit his palm with his fist in epiphany and smirked eagerly. "Oooooh, so it's a challenge?"

She tensed up nervously and quickly tried to calm him down by making soothing gestures with both her hands before he could get the wrong idea here. "Easy there, Dally. The objective here is _not_ to get me pregnant, remember? We still want to go on adventures, right?"

He put his hand on his chin and nodded with closed eyes. "Oh, right, right. I see."

Eva sighed in relief while he only looked at her with a confident grin, pointing proudly at himself. "But just so you know, I totally could win that challenge."

She laughed at his antics and decided to humor him: "Riiiight, so let me guess: You would likely want an Iop boy. Tough luck, for I've just now decided that I will only have Cra girls." She had wanted to tease him a bit, only to get surprised by him merely shrugging indifferently.

"Eh, that's fine. Cra or Iop doesn't matter as long as they come from you. I think you would make a good mother, Eva." He told her the last bit with a happy grin as he scratched the back of his head.

This caused her to blush madly as she eyed him in utter bewilderment. Eventually, she could do little but narrow her eyes in defeat. Honestly, why was this guy so goddamn adorable? "Sheesh…what's with you, saying such things all of a sudden…"

"But you know…" He brought up a hand to his chin and began thinking about the future. "I would still like to have at least one Iop to train. Just imagine how much fun it would be. He or she would become the greatest Iop of them all." He laughed grandly. "A legend worthy of their parents name."

She smiled at him as she shook her head slowly. "The kid doesn't even exist yet and you are already the proudest dad there could ever be…"

"Well, of course." He nodded confidently and with folded arms. "It would be our kid. We are already awesome, so naturally, our kid would be even more awesome. It's very logical, Eva."

"Oh you…" She sighed at him helplessly as she patted his head gently, giggling amusedly. "Never change, Dally."

"It's decided then." He declared confidently, causing her to blink at him.

"What is?"

"Twins." He told her, smirking proudly. "We will be having twins. One Iop boy and one Cra girl."

"Wha-?" She eyed him in utter bewilderment before she eventually started to laugh. "That's impossible. In the whole Cra history, there were, like, what? Only a handful of cases where twins were born? You would have to be a god to get a Cra to bear twins."

He only shrugged at that, followed by forming and raising a fist eagerly. "Nothing is impossible for Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove! I came back from the dead. How hard could it be to make twins?"

She grinned at him amusedly as she folded her hands together behind her back cutely. "Very. Statistically, you would be more likely to win the lottery. But…" She narrowed her eyes on him lovingly as she leaned in closer. "…since it's you, if you try very, very, _very _hard…you might actually succeed."

He gulped at the implication and couldn't help but grin excitedly just from imagining how much fun they would have together from now on, but then he quickly shook his head and rose a finger alarmingly. "Ah, you gotta stop motivating me too much, Eva. I almost forgot the objective."

This made her blush and pull back nervously as well, nodding with closed eyes. "Oh, right, right. No kids for now, so remember: Leave your twin idea for _after_ the adventures, alright?" She gestured with her hands to take his idea and put it to the side for later. He nodded heavily and gave her two thumbs up to visualize that he had understood. She nodded contently. Good. Nothing bad should happen as long as he didn't put his mind to it, right? Her knight may have liked to achieve the impossible, but this time she would appreciate it if he achieved the impossible…later. Much later.

"Well, come on. We ought to get going." She eventually decided to finish the topic and get back to more pressing affairs…like getting back to their friends.

"Right behind you."

Shortly after, Rubilax was greeted with the sight of Eva's bag growing momentarily bigger than it should be, only to spit out two very familiar looking people before shrinking back to its normal size again. Looking up, the two youths quickly realized that the sky had, indeed, already begun to get brighter, but it was still very early in the morning. Still, since Eva didn't object in any way, Dally figured that the little bit of light they had must have been enough for her to find their way back to their camp. Sometimes he envied her eyesight a bit.

"Up so early, lovebirds?" Rubi greeted them with a bored expression, still being stuck in the ground near a now burnt out campfire.

"Morning, Rubi. Yep, Eva is ruthless as always." Dally moaned tiredly and rubbed his eyes with a yawn.

"Heh, that's what you signed up for, so better stop complaining." Rubi told him with a chuckle. Eva nodded at that agreeingly.

"Listen to your sword." She said as she pointed at Rubi with a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah." Dally yawned again and pulled Rubi out of the ground. "So, finished thinking?"

The Shushu blade eyed him in annoyance. "I would have liked to do some thinking, if it hadn't been so damn _loud_." He threw a glance at Eva and said: "Hate to break it to you, blondie, but whoever gave you that bag of yours gave you a busted one. This one doesn't muffle the sound coming from inside _at all_."

This made her eye the blade in utter horror. Pushing Dally aside in a panic, she grabbed the blade with both hands and hastily said: "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Are you trying to tell me you could _hear_ us?"

He eyed her smugly. "As if you were right next to me."

Despair and shame took hold of her face as she lowered her gaze so that her hair would obstruct her eyes. "…W-what did you hear?" She asked with a soft voice.

He narrowed his eye on her. "Everything."

"Everything…?"

"_Everything._"

"I see." Eva was seen holding the blade with shaky hands as a scary smile crept up her face. Not liking the terrifying look in her eyes, Rubilax grew nervous when he saw her turning around to face the lake, followed by reaching back as if attempting to throw him into it.

"Oi, oi, oi! Girl, what are you doing!?" Rubi suddenly yelled in a panic while Dally quickly grabbed Eva's hand to prevent her from sinking Rubi to the bottom of that lake.

"Easy there, Eva! Friends don't throw friends away." He tried to convince her worriedly. Rubi couldn't help but agree wholeheartedly.

"Listen to your boyfriend, missy!"

Eva still smiled scarily, stubbornly trying to break free from her knight's grip to proceed with her evil deed. "He has seen too much, Dally. He must _disappear_."

"Oh, you have no idea how _relieved_ I am I didn't actually get to see. Just hearing was more than enough, really." Rubi couldn't help but comment with a roll of his eye.

"You wanted to think, no? Should be plenty quiet when you are submerged under water." She hissed at him.

"Are you speaking from experience there, drowning beauty?" Rubi shot back equally as angry.

"And just whose damn fault was that, huh?" Breaking free from Dally's grip, she ran up to the nearest tree to repeatedly smack Rubi against it.

"Ouch. Ow. What, did being a bodyguard not pay enough? Ouch. You a lumberjack now?"

"Dally, how. Do. You. Shut. This. Thing. UP?" The blonde Cra yelled in a fury, hitting the blade against the tree after every word she said.

Said knight merely eyed the show in mild amazement, thinking he had seen this somewhere before. "Wow…Déjà vu."

"Urgh….how humiliating…" Eva eventually gave up, falling to her knees and leaning on her hands, followed by angrily clenching her fists and gritting her teeth. "Should have known Ruel wouldn't give a good haven bag away just like that. Just wait until I get this old cheapskate into my clutches…"

"Ah, you want to beat someone up? Let me be of service." Rubi suddenly sounded eager, chuckling evilly. "And don't fret so much about me knowing what you did last night. I've seen Goutard do worse. Nothing fazes me anymore, really." He added the last bit as if he was a shell-shocked veteran.

"Whatever…" Eva sighed in defeat, choosing to get up and handing the blade back to Dally with a sullen expression. "Guess I will just have to live with Rubi always being there. I suppose it's a bit like having a pet watch you…"

"Oi, who are you calling a pet!" Rubi yelled, but eventually got shushed by Dally.

"Let it rest, Rubi. If you make her angry again, she really might end up throwing you into that lake."

Rubi growled in anger but chose to heed his guardian's warning and kept his mouth shut, looking away in a displeased manner. Dally and Eva then walked up to the string that still held their clothes and sighed in relief when they saw that they really had dried up next to the fire. Well, you could still feel a few damp spots on some places, but it would do for now. It already was way better than it had been the night before. They quickly got dressed and got ready to move out, letting Eva navigate through the woods while Dally trailed behind her, looking out for some creatures foolish enough to attack them. However, his hopes ended up being crushed yet again. He kicked a pebble angrily. Stupid peaceful forest.

After about an hour of walking, the couple eventually managed to return to the camp, now smelling the delicious scent of Yugo's cooking.

"We are back." Eva sighed deeply in relief, brushing off a leaf that had managed to get stuck in her hair.

"Aaaaand…nobody seems to even care that we were gone." Dally noted after seeing everyone casually sticking to their morning routines. They saw Ruel drinking his weird, hot and black morning potion, Yugo was frying a bunch of eggs over a fire and Amalia was too busy brushing her hair to even notice that they were approaching. Honestly…why had they even rushed so much?

"Ah, back again?" Ruel greeted them as he casually took a sip from his drink. "Done making out in the woods?"

Both lovers blushed and waved him off with a nervous laugh. "Make out? Who, we? Nah. We were just…uh…" Eva tried coming up with a believable excuse when Dally came to the rescue, filling in for her with a raised finger.

"…doing renaissance!"

Eva sighed at him, pushing his proudly raised finger down again while correcting him: "Reconnaissance, Dally."

He only shrugged at her cluelessly. "Same thing!"

His girlfriend could only facepalm at that. Cra, have mercy…

Ruel had only grinned at them knowingly in the meantime. "Uh-huh. Dally, the guy who would sleep until noon if left unattended, would willingly get up early to do mere scouting? Nice try, kiddos, but you ain't gonna fool this wise man right here." He pointed at himself with his thumb, then shrugged casually. "I've been young once, too. I know how it goes."

Eva eyed him mischievously as she folded her arms in front of her chest. "Ah, so was that one, or two centuries ago?"

The Enutrof frowned at her, clearly not amused, then eyed Dally in the same manner. "What do you see in this one, I wonder?" She wasn't cute at all.

The redhead grinned at him as he put a hand around her waist und pulled her closer.

"To me she looks like a hundred bags of kamas would for you, old man."

Ruel watched Eva's face light up with pure happiness upon hearing him say these cheesy lines. From the way she fawned over him with those sparkling eyes, you might actually start believing that there was a sack of kamas hidden in each of them. Heh.

"You better keep good watch on such a fortune, then." He told him with a cheeky grin. "I recommend locking her into a hidden, underground vault, so no one steals her."

Rubi joined in on the fun. "Why go through the trouble? Just bury the treasure right here, right now. Just don't forget to draw a map. Or don't. All depending on whether you actually want to find her again at all."

They both broke out into vigorous laughter before Eva eyed them with annoyance and kicked Ruel's shin and poked Rubi's eye, making them both curse her. Thanks for ruining the moment, you bastards.

Ruel and Rubi didn't appreciate her actions very much. Especially Rubi seemed to be really annoyed, so he said: "Hey, blondie. Remember this 'friendly banter' business you threw at me yesterday?"

Eva looked down on him coldly and raised a brow, silently asking him what he was on about. She then saw him looking at her friends, then her, followed by assuming a smug look. The blonde Cra immediately knew what was up and whirled her arms around in a panic.

"Rubi, no-!" She tried to stop him by putting a hand over him but it was too late. The blade addressed the group with a very uncharacteristically happy and excited voice.

"Hey guys. Guess who climbed the stairs to adulthood last night?"

Everyone eyed them weirdly while Ruel choked on his drink, spit it out and kept coughing repeatedly. Eva for her part could only facepalm in silent disbelief. She was done. This was the end. There was no recovering from this.

But then:

"Stairs to adulthood?" Amalia asked with a raised brow and a shrug. "What's that?"

"Did you find a ruin in the woods?" Yugo asked them excitedly. "Will you show me?"

Eva let out a deep sigh of relief. Cra be thanked for the existence of childish innocence. She was saved!

"Don't listen to him, guys. He is lying. There were no stairs in that forest. Only trees and a lake." Dally quickly tried to clear up the misunderstanding with a kind smile, causing Yugo to sulk sadly and Amalia to roll her eyes in disinterest. What a waste of time, then.

Eva narrowed her eyes on her boyfriend. Childish innocence AND Iopish inability to comprehend metaphors, she corrected herself mentally. Rubi for his part could do little but narrow his eye as well, although in his case it was out of utter disappointment as they watched Yugo and Amalia wordlessly returning to their earlier tasks, minding their own business.

"Morons…" He grumbled.

The blonde Cra eyed him smugly, placing a hand on her hip. "Nice try, demon. But it's your loss."

"My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined…" He told her with an annoyed growl, throwing a quick glance at the ignorant Amalia. "I handed this one to the moss-head on a silver platter and she just didn't get it." He looked down and sighed. "Iop brains…Iop brains everywhere."

"Naaaw…there, there." She teasingly patted his hilt, causing him to scowl at her.

"I shall have my revenge, woman!"

Ruel interrupted their little 'friendly banter' by clearing his throat, making Dally and Eva eye him curiously.

"Well, congratulations, you two." He said with a knowing smile to which Dally could only grin happily, scratching the back of his head with one hand while forming a V with his other. Eva just played with her hair and averted her gaze with a blush. The old Enutrof produced two more cups from his bag and poured in more of his weird, dark drink with a friendly grin before handing them each one.

"Since we are now all fellow adults, I will let you have a taste of my special morning potion as well. It's really good for getting you going for the day, gives you lots of energy. Might help you with replenishing the energy…" He coughed slyly. "…you might have spent at night."

Eva eyed him embarrassedly but decided to remain silent as she looked at the weird drink in her hands. It was warm like tea and had a pleasant fragrance which was very uncommon for something that had its origin in Ruel. She wondered what he made this stuff out of and curiously took a sip from it to savor the taste. Bitter, yet not unpleasant. She kinda liked it.

Dally merely grinned at the man happily in the meantime, playfully hitting him on the shoulder. "No need for more energy, old man. I feel like a newborn man. I could tear out trees with my bare hands right now." He sighed deeply, clearly content with his life. "It's good to be alive."

Eva smiled at him while Ruel just threw a curious look at her, silently asking her just what the hell she must have done to him to make him sound like that. He only got a cheeky grin and a wink in return. She ain't telling. Dally had tried the drink out in the meantime, only to spit half of it out again in disgust.

"Bitter…" He whined as he stuck out his tongue. He was not a fan, huh.

"What a waste…" Ruel sighed at him as he shook his head. "…welcome to adulthood, Dally. Life is bitter, just like that potion."

"But if you put in some sugar and milk, I think it would taste better?" The redheaded knight suggested while pointing at his drink. Ruel merely ripped the mug out of his grasp angrily.

"No. Life is bitter. End of discussion. If the drink is too strong, you are too weak."

Dally frowned at the man with folded arms. "Taste has nothing to do with weakness. If something tastes bad, it just sucks."

Eva pointed at Dally and nodded. "He actually has a point, Ruel. Taste is subjective."

The old man eyed her in annoyance. "Which is likely why Dally is the only one who can actually stand a harpy like you, eh?"

Eva wordlessly sipped her drink as she kicked his shin again, even hitting the very same spot from earlier. That was Cra precision for you. Ruel suppressed a pained cry and eyed her darkly with teary eyes, but eventually decided it was better to let the matter rest.

"So, I assume my wise council paid off?" He then chose to ask Dally with a smirk to which Dally replied by offering the older man a fist bump.

"Worth every single kama I paid for it."

This made Eva raise a brow at them as she took another sip of Ruel's morning potion. "Wait, _you_ gave him the talk?" She eyed Ruel in disbelief. The man could only shrug at that.

"No one else seemed to want to."

Eva sighed at that. Well, of course…nobody liked to do that, but still…

"…and you charged him money for it…?" She eyed him with quite some disgust. He was reaching a low she didn't even think was possible to achieve. Who the bwork did that?

"Well, if you are good at something, never do it for free." Ruel told her with a proud nod and folded arms. Eva narrowed her eyes at him and said with a serious voice:

"Pay it back to him. Do you have no shame?"

"But he said it was worth every kama just now."

"He can't count past two, anything he gets for money is worth every kama he paid for it."

Dally eyed her confusedly. "Eh, but I was really grateful for his help. I think I might have made a fool out of myself if not for him."

"That's besides the point, Dally." She told him with a tired sigh and pointed at Ruel accusingly. "He ripped you off like he always does. Friends don't rip friends off. People usually get that piece of information for free." She blushed slightly and leaned in closer to him, whispering: "If you still hadn't known by now, I would have taught you instead, you know?"

Well, she was glad she had been spared the awkwardness of doing so, but she had been mentally prepared for it regardless. She had half expected that no one had enlightened Dally until recently, given his previous state as a lone wanderer with limited social interactions.

Hearing this, the red headed knight stood up energetically and held out his palm expectantly in front of Ruel. "Hand me back my money, you swindler! How dare you rip off a friend? I trusted you! Do you have no honor at all?"

"Tch." The bearded man clicked his tongue angrily and eyed Eva sharply, only to receive an unimpressed scowl from her in return. "Why do you have to be like this, Eva?"

"Because you are a damn cheapskate and your constant penny-pinching is pissing me off."

"I am waiting." Dally told the white-haired man impatiently.

"How rude to ask an Enutrof for refunds, and after I have shared my potion with you, no less." Ruel mumbled angrily, causing Dally to shoot back with gritted teeth and a raised fist:

"You mean that abominable black muck that tasted so vile, it might as well have been your old bath water for all I know?"

Eva spit out a mouthful of the drink and coughed vehemently as she eyed the drink in her almost empty cup critically. Wait, now that he mentioned it…what _was_ that stuff made off? But then again…it tasted and smelled too good to be bad. Ah, how conflicting…she put the cup aside for now in favor of folding her hands in front of her and eying the Enutrof sharply.

"Speaking of refunds, we need to talk about your kind gift you gave me a couple months back."

Ruel froze instantly as he heard the tone in which she spoke. Crap, this Cra was pissed. Very pissed. This was dangerous. Even Dally got goose bumps from the aura his girlfriend emitted, and Rubi was seen trying to hide deeper into his sheath as well.

"W-what of it?" The old bounty hunter asked her with a nervous smile. Eva closed her eyes calmly and asked:

"When were you going to tell me that it was busted, exactly?"

"I-it was busted?" Ruel tried to feign ignorance but failed horribly under these scary circumstances. It was like facing Grougaloragran all over again. No, perhaps even _scarier_. Eva sighed in annoyance and leaned in closer on the man. Was she a freaking mafia boss or something?

"Let me tell you what I think, Ruel." She told him dryly. "I think, you knew of the bag's defect and realized you couldn't sell this thing to anyone like that. I also think you thought you were clever by giving it to me as a present since you couldn't sell it anyway. Lastly, I think you then realized you've created a good business opportunity to sell me lots of furniture, knowing full well I would throw out all of the previous trash that had been in it. Did I get the gist of it?"

Ruel visibly shrunk under the pressure, trying to laugh her anger off. "Well, if you put it like that, it kinda sounds bad, but looking at it positively, it's still a haven bag, no?"

"Yes, and that would have been a very kind gift of you…if it wasn't broken." Eva told him with a scowl, then merely demanded: "Repair it."

"Repair it!?" Ruel suddenly yelled at her indignantly while grabbing her by the shoulders, shaking her violently. "Are you out of your damn mind, woman? The sheer amount of rare materials I would have to pour into its restoration would cost me a fortune!"

Eva didn't seem impressed by his declaration at all, merely stating: "Ten kamas are already a fortune for you, so excuse me if I am not really amazed by the scale of your words here." She brushed his hands off her and eyed him sternly. "Plus, I believe you don't seem to realize the importance the functionality of this haven bag carries for the whole group. A lack of reliable privacy equals a lack of a new way of stress relief we two have discovered for ourselves. In other words, a working bag leads to a happy Cra and Iop. An inoperable bag, however, will lead to a very _unhappy_ Cra and Iop."

Catching on to her meaning and the loss of fun activities a broken haven bag would result in, Dally quickly put an arm around Ruel in a buddy-buddy way, yet only looked at him with the most intimidating grin the old man had ever seen the Iop sport on his lips. This appeared to have become a matter of great importance for said knight who now had made the restoration of Eva's sacred bag his new main quest. And naturally so, given the legendary rewards that would await him once he would clear it.

"Ruel, my old friend. I must kindly implore you to heed this lady's request." He asked of him with a very forced smile. However, Ruel had faced scarier foes and survived seemingly hopeless odds already. He wouldn't fold this easily. Hence why he defiantly declared:

"I refuse!"

Now clearly seeing the level of annoyance under the mask of a fake smile in form of a pulsing vein, Ruel was suddenly forced to gasp for air as Dally's hug grew stronger and effectively made breathing more and more difficult. "But Ruel, I must beg you to reconsider. I _insist_."

"Must I remind you of the old and sacred codex of men, Dally?" Ruel said with a nervous smile as he tried to free himself of the knight's relentless grip.

Dally eyed him questioningly. "The one where you don't talk about the brawl club?"

Ruel raised a brow in confusion. "What? No! Bros before hoes, Dally."

Now it was the knight's turn to look confused. "What do garden utensils have to do with anything here? I am a farm hand no longer, must I remind you?"

Ruel narrowed his eyes on him in utter disbelief. How daft could you possibly be? He sighed deeply and looked at Rubi, silently sharing a moment with him. It was almost as if he wanted to say "I somehow feel your pain, man. I really do."

Rubi sent a look back that could be interpreted as: "You haven't even seen half of it, really."

Meanwhile, Junior who had quietly sat next to his master all this time had finally decided that all this strange hostility that had been directed at Ruel had reached a critical level. Therefore, he did what any good dhreller would do. Protect its master by biting his assaulter's foot.

"Ouch! Hey, what gives, Junior?" Dally cried out in pain and eyed the small creature woefully who would only glare at him determinedly. The message was clear. Leave my master alone, meanie!

That was the moment they heard Ruel cheer a happy "Attaboy!" before quickly grabbing his lovely pet and jumping into his own haven bag before Dally could get a hold of him again. "Shop's closed. Get lost, kiddos!"

When Dally and Eva saw the bag stick out its tongue at them, they merely looked down on it coldly as they folded their arms in front of their chests and frowned.

"Tch, the coward ran away." Dally noted with a click of the tongue. Eva sighed, sounding equally as disappointed with the old man.

"Patience, Dally. He will have to get out there eventually."

"So we wait?"

She nodded and crouched down before the bag, smirking evilly. "We wait."

And thus, the couple sat in front of the bag like two cats in front of a mouse hole. Predators waiting for the prey. Sure, Eva had been aware that getting an Enutrof, especially Ruel, to do something that wasn't in his immediate favor came close to be nothing short of fighting an uphill battle, but she wouldn't forfeit this one so easily. She would fight for her haven bag's restoration. If needed to, she would even pay Ruel for it. But only if she couldn't get the old coot to do so otherwise. She would be damned if she let this stingy cheapskate rip her off again and again. Somebody just had to teach this guy a lesson in morals and discipline, after all. She was so done with getting the short end of the stick when dealing with him.

However, things came quite differently once Amalia, now having finally finished with her morning routine, walked them by only to spot a change in Eva's looks. Naturally, being the princess that she was, the young Sadida immediately had to know how her bodyguard had achieved such a rapid improvement so quickly. Perhaps she could copy it, after all.

"Eva, your skin is glowing!" She noted with sparkling eyes, rudely feeling up Eva's face like a curious child.

"I-it is?" Eva asked her friend in surprise, not having yet had the chance to look into a mirror herself. A flaw Amalia quickly tried to fix for her, handing her a hand mirror.

"It's so pretty and smooth! Have a look yourself."

Eva did exactly that and barely could recognize her own self. Tracing her own face in amazement, she had to realize that Amalia had been right. She, indeed, had started looking quite pretty for some reason. She smiled softly, being happy about that fact.

Amalia, however, wanted details, so she quickly asked: "How did you manage to do that? Did you buy a new crème or something? Lend it to me!"

"Uh, but I didn't really…" She helplessly looked around as she tried to comprehend what possibly could have brought the change until her gaze fell on her boyfriend, who merely tilted his head at her questioningly as she blushed in realization. "Could it have been…?" She mumbled quietly to herself, considering the possibility.

"What? Tell me!" Amalia remained stubborn, dragging her best friend with her as they went off somewhere where the boys weren't. "If it's embarrassing, you can tell me in private. Come on."

"No, princess, I can't!" She told Amalia nervously as she tried to break free from her grip. To no avail. When it came down to beauty and fashion, this girl's hidden potential fully unfolded, leaving the normally stronger Cra no room for resistance. Not even grabbing a tree's branch managed to halt Amalia's forceful pull, as it merely broke off under the pressure of the younger Sadida's thirst for knowledge. Evangelyne held out a hand towards Dally, silently begging him to safe her, but the knight knew better than get in the way of this so called 'girls talk'. There was no way of stopping Amalia when she was like this, aside from knocking her unconscious…and, well, he doubted that doing so was a good idea.

Hence why he could only clap his hands together apologetically, followed by pointing at Ruel's bag he still had to guard. Seeing this, Eva let go of all hope and merely let herself be dragged away with a whiny face. She had been abandoned!

Dally sighed sadly as he continued watching the bag in a bored manner. It had stopped being fun the moment Eva had left his side, so his eagerness to remain sitting here dwindled quickly. When the smell of breakfast eventually reached his nose and Yugo brought forth the good news of it having been prepared at last, Dally's body almost seemed to levitate and get pulled into the direction of food by itself.

With his guard post now clearly vacant, the bag slowly opened up again, letting Junior curiously stick out his head as he looked left and right, sniffing out potential dangers. When his nose failed to identify any threats, the young dhreller jumped out and poked the bag three times to inform his master that the coast was clear. Not even a second later, the old man climbed out of his bag and grinned in triumph, sharing a low five with his trusty partner. Another scammed customer safely avoided. Hah, suckers!

Well, at least for the time being…

* * *

-Bonus scenes-

Several years later, at a place far from human civilization, a single house stood, built in as well as around a tree. In it, a family of four lived their idyllic lives together. The legendary Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove and Lady Evangelyne, as well as their twins of four years, Elely and Flopin.

That's right, that small house in the middle of nowhere, it was the Sadlygrove residence.

Said family was currently sitting at the table and enjoyed a nice lunch together. Elely watched her father in awe as he managed to devour a steak whole and was eager to attempt to do the same thing, yet visibly struggled as her mouth hadn't been even remotely as big as her father's had been, causing daddy Percedal to chuckle at her amusedly while mommy merely sighed at her daughter's antics and proceeded to cut the meat into smaller portions so the poor Iopette wouldn't choke on her meal. Flopin, having already devoured his steak, smelled the chance to get an extra portion for himself by stealing a good chunk of his sister's portion with a swift motion.

"Yoink!"

"Oi, you cretin! That's mine!" Elely quickly protested as she tried to jump over the table to strangle her brother, when her father merely pulled her back.

"I know it's tempting, but no fighting at the table." He told her with a gentle smile, causing her to sulk.

"But Flo-Flo stole my food!" She objected, to which her mother merely stood up from her seat, took her daughter's plate with one hand and ruffled her hair with her other one playfully.

"There's plenty of food for everyone. Your Dad felt the need to decimate half a herd of boars, so we will be eating nothing but that for the rest of the week, I reckon." She added the last part with a heavy sigh as she headed for the kitchen to refill her daughter's plate. She came back soon after and placed the food before her, chuckling slightly from the way her eyes began sparkling and drool came leaking out of her mouth. Like father, like daughter, it seemed.

"There you go, sweetheart. And no more stealing." The last bit was directed at her son who visibly crumbled under his mother's stern look.

"Sorry, Mama…"

"Cut him some slack, Eva. Flopin is a growing man. He needs lots of meat to grow tall and strong like his Dad, right?" His father winked at him and playfully flexed his right arm, to which the young Cra eagerly followed his example, flexing his own arms with a wide grin as well.

"Right!"

Eva sighed at that and took a seat once more, leaning her head on her right hand casually. "You _strong_ men do know that you also need to eat your veggies to grow strong, right?"

She smirked when she saw both of them stick out their tongues in disgust.

"If you say so, Mom…" Flopin sighed in resignation and stabbed a piece of carrot with his fork to bring it to his mouth unwillingly. He hated eating carrots, but Mom smiled when he did, so he would. For Mom!

His father was visibly less eager to follow his son's example, choosing to listlessly play with his veggies on his plate as he mumbled: "Spent all these years growing up so I wouldn't have to eat roots and grass anymore only to end up having to do so anyway…"

"If you ate the stuff together with the meat, it wouldn't taste so bad, you know." Eva told her boyfriend with a teasing smirk.

"Yeah, but it would diminish the tasty flavor of the meat." Dally continued to whine until he noticed Flopin poking his elbow to catch his attention. Looking down to his son, he heard him whispering.

"Mommy will be sad if you don't eat your veggies."

Dally took a glance at Eva who had overheard her son and was now smiling as she playfully rubbed her eyes with a fake pout. Her son pointed at his mother worriedly as if to tell his father:

"See? See?"

Seeing this, Papa Percedal could do little but smile in defeat as he lifted up his plate, nodded at his son proudly and began shoving the rest of the plate's contents into his mouth. Flopin seemed content enough with that, choosing to quickly decimate the remaining veggies on his plate as well.

Eva giggled contently as she got up again, planted a kiss on Flopin's head, followed by her boyfriend's one and took each of their now empty plates to bring them back to the kitchen. "My, what good boys I have."

Hearing this, father and son shared a proud fist bump with each other. Mama was content. Mission accomplished.

"Whot aboot meh?" Elely objected with a mouth filled to the brink with food, having quickly shoved in everything she could so she also got to proudly show off an empty plate like her brother and father had.

Everyone looked at her briefly before started laughing loudly.

"With an appetite like yours, you will undoubtedly become the tallest and strongest Iopette the world of twelve has ever seen." Eva told her as she laughed up her sleeve, collecting her daughter's empty plate as well. The redheaded girl could only smile proudly at her mother's words.

"Right, so whose turn is it to do the dishes?" Dally asked his kids with a grin, only to have them both point their fingers at each other accusingly.

"Elely's!" "Flopin's!" Realizing they had both tried to shift the responsibility to the other, they began glaring at each other evilly and with a growl.

"Alright, alright. I get it." Dally said with a deep sigh as he took the plates his girlfriend had collected and headed over to the kitchen. "Mommy cooked our meal so I will clean the plates, Elely will wipe them off and Flopin will put them away. Deal?"

"Deal!" The kids cheered in unison and followed after their father. If Papa helped, this would be over in no time.

Eva smiled contently and yelled after them: "And no breaking the plates. That means you, Dally."

"Come on, that only happened once, Eva." She heard him whine and giggled in mild amusement.

"You look content with your life, Evangelyne." She heard a certain Shushu blade address her as he hung on the wall, overlooking the living room. She went over to him and put both her hands on each of her hips, offering him a wide grin.

"Should I not be? I have my own house, two adorable kids, a lovely boyfriend and a strong Shushu guardian overlooking everything. This is good enough."

Rubi chuckled. "And here I thought you Cras all wanted shiny medals to pin on your uniforms and stuff."

Eva narrowed her eyes in annoyance as she looked away. "Well, guess I am not like other Cras then."

"That's fine. I like you bunch more the way you are. Iop brains or not." He admitted with an implied grin. Eva put her hands together behind her back and smiled at the Shushu blade cutely.

"You look happy with your life as well, Rubi."

"Well, what can I say? I guess you guys grew on me. Even the noisy miniature versions of you and Dally-o."

"That's good." Eva nodded contently. "The kids would probably cry for weeks if they found out their _cool_ _and awesome _guardian secretly hated them."

"Oh god, please. No more crying. I am happy they finally grew out of the toddler stage." He told her woefully, probably remembering all these noisy nights from not so long ago. The blonde Cra couldn't help but sigh agreeingly.

"Yeah, those were quite some sleepless nights, indeed…"

Suddenly, their talk got interrupted by a knock on the door, which caught her by surprise.

"Did you order a pizza or something?" Rubi asked her in wonder.

"We are in the middle of nowhere, Rubi. Where would I order a pizza from?"

"Beats me." He disappeared in a flash, only to reappear in her right hand, looking up to her eagerly. "You gonna open the door or what? I hope it's a bandit. Haven't beaten up some idiots ever since you bunch built this house."

Eva frowned at that. The whole point of building this house out here was to have some peace and quiet. Having bandits show up here would completely defeat the purpose. Taking a firm grip on Rubi, she approached the door, opening it confidently while holding Rubi ready to attack if necessary.

Which ended up not being the case as the one to greet her on the other side was no one else but Amalia, panting heavily and trying to catch her breath. The blonde Cra blinked at her in mild surprise, not having expected her visit.

"Amie? What's wrong? You look rather tired." She eyed her friend worriedly and offered her to come in, which the green haired princess did.

"Came…running…" The tired princess wheezed.

"All the way from the portal?" Eva asked her in bewilderment. The nearest portal was quite far from here. "Why? Did something happen?"

"I've finally….figured it out…Eva." She took a seat on the family's couch and leaned back exhaustedly.

"Figured out what?"

"The stars to adulthood." The princess pointed a finger at her. "You…with Dally. I finally cracked the code!"

Rubi and Eva eyed each other with narrowed eyes before the Shushu blade regarded the Sadida princess with quite some ridicule. "Took you long enough, moss-head. You guys keep giving Dally-o quite some shit, but aren't you the actual Iop-brain here?"

Eva scratched her cheek awkwardly and shrugged. "Yeah, I thought that stopped being a secret the moment I started having kids, you know?" What did Amalia think they had come from? Fairy dust?

"That's not what I meant!" The younger woman yelled at them, trying to mask the faint blush on her cheeks. "The problem isn't _that_ you did it, but _when_! On that night all these years ago. In that forest! I never knew!"

Eva sighed at her. "Well, that was kind of the whole point. Knowing how you would react, I naturally wouldn't tell you." She frowned at her and folded her arms in front of her chest. "You would have just kept teasing me endlessly for it, anyway."

"That's exactly it, Eva!" The young princess whined. "Just think about all the teasing opportunities I missed by not knowing. It pains my heart!" She pulled out a bunch of cards she had written stuff on beforehand. "I tried coming up with some things on my way here, so let me catch up on my missed opportunities. How's this:"

She cleared her throat before singing: "Dally and Eva, sitting in a tree." She tried to suppress a laugh. "That one is especially funny, given how you live in one, get it? Anyway, K-I-S-S-…"

Eva, clearly not amused, merely narrowed her eye on her best friend and drily told her: "Leave."

"Eh? No way. I just got here, and I've still got more. How's this: How do you call the relationship of Dally and Eva? _Tristeva_." She burst out into a laughing fit. "Get it? Triste-Eva. Because after being with such a barbarian like Dally, you will be all gloomy and sad."

"How funny…" Eva deadpanned with a forced smile and her eyebrows quivering from pure anger. She grabbed Amalia and pulled her over her shoulder, heading to the entrance with gritted teeth.

"Aww, see? That's what I meant. You are all grown up and boring now. You used to light up like a Christmas tree when I did that. There is no fun teasing you about it now…" Amalia said with a depressed frown.

"Yeah, this is exactly why I had to secretly keep my own haven bag to sneak into with Dally at night. And all of that just because I couldn't afford to let you know or I would have never heard the end of it." Eva said with an annoyed expression. "And you honestly wonder why I never told you."

Amalia gasped at her. "You had a freaking haven bag? And you let me sleep in the wilderness?" She hit Eva's back angrily with her fists before shouting: "That's it, Eva. You are fired!"

"I stopped working for you years ago, princess." Eva replied with a roll of her eyes.

"Well, as coincidence has it, your position is still vacant after all these years. Want it back? Dad would even triple your old wage."

This made Eva halt on her tracks for a second, wide eyed. "T-t-triple?"

Amalia's expression returned to the one she sported earlier, narrowing her eyes at Eva annoyedly. "You are fired."

"You little…" Eva clenched her fists and had to try really hard to not smack it against her old friend's face. Really, sometimes Eva was not at all surprised that her old bodyguard position was still vacant. Who else but her had the patience to deal with this brat's antics?

"Well, guess what you are, Amie?" The blonde Cra said with a smile as she placed the princess down in front of the entrance.

"What?" The green haired woman asked, clearly not impressed.

"LEAVING!" Eva yelled as she slammed the door shut in front of her.

The princes blinked a few times at the now closed door before yelling: "Well, who wants to visit you anyway!"

"You were the one who came, idiot!" Eva's voice could be heard from the other side.

"Well, this was the last time ever!"

"Good!"

"Good!"

Amalia pouted and turned around angrily, kicking away a pebble and sitting down on the stairs leading up to the doorway, letting her head rest on both her hands.

"Stupid Eva. Stupid house in the middle of nowhere. Stupid, stupid, stupid."

A couple of minutes passed with Amalia sulking in silence as she wondered what she should do now, being in all the way out here far off from any kind of civilization and way too tired to head back to the portal on foot. She sighed sadly, thinking she might have to camp out here tonight. Maybe she shouldn't have teased Eva so much, huh? But it couldn't be helped. She kind of missed the old times.

She sighed again. Too bad that Eva was now way too mature and experienced to get teased anymore. Amalia had always liked that about her friend before.

Suddenly she heard the door opening up again behind her with Elely and Flopin coming out to stand before her. Flopin gently hit her head with a half-hearted karate chop.

It didn't hurt at all but Amalia figured that it hadn't been the kid's objective from the start. She eyed him curiously, albeit still pouting. "That's rude. What gives?"

"You made Mama sad. That's bad."

Elely formed a fist and hit Amalia against the arm next. This time it hurt. This girl never held back.

"Don't bully Mama, meanie!"

"Ouch! You are so like your father." Amalia noted with an amused smile, which made Elely put her hands behind her back to let it rest against them casually and with a wide grin.

"Thanks, auntie."

Amalia smirked at her evilly and returned the favor by forming a fist and hitting the smaller girl's arm as well. "Who are you calling auntie? I am way too young to be called that. Call me big sis."

"Only if you manage to defeat me." The girl said cockily, rubbing the spot under her nose while assuming a confident pose.

"Mom said you are still too young to fight, sis." Flopin warned her, only to get yelled at by her.

"But Dad says it's fine, so there!"

"But even Dad has to listen to Mom…" The young boy objected, causing Elely to turn around with folded arms.

"Only when she gets really mad."

"Anyway…" Flopin decided to change the topic, addressing Amalia once more who had just watched them with an amused smile up until now. "Mama says you can come in again if you behave."

Amalia blinked at them in mild bewilderment. "She did?"

"Yep. But if you make her cry, we will tell Papa. He will get suuuper mad." Flopin warned her with a raised finger. Elely laughed at that.

"Yes, one time, when Mama was pregnant with us and they went shopping, some jerk said Mama looked like a fat pandawa. Mama said Papa got so mad, he grabbed the guy's face and rammed it into the nearest wall so hard, he kept being stuck there."

"They then got kicked out of the store for making a scene." Flopin added with a grin. "Mama got so angry, she shot the manager with a frozen arrow, turning him into a snowman. Papa laughed all the way home, apparently."

"Huh, now I wish I could have seen that." Amalia said with a kind smile, listening in on the story eagerly.

"Us too." They both sighed in unison. "Too bad we hadn't been born yet."

"Your parents were always like that, though." The green haired princess told them with a grin.

"Really?" The kids' eyes sparkled with hope as they grabbed each of Amalia's hands and forced her to get up. "Tell us, tells us!"

"Well, there was that one time when-…" Amalia started telling a story while the kids dragged her back into the house, closing the door behind them.

For the rest of the day, nothing but joy and laughter could be heard coming from inside the Sadlygrove residence.

* * *

"Hey Dad." Flopin asked his father who was currently busy fixing a hole Elely had accidentally punched into the wall due to over-excitement and not really understanding the extend of her Iopish strength. Elely was hiding behind a corner for exactly that reason, not really wanting to risk getting a lecture from her father for having caused problems yet again.

"Hm?" He mumbled, unable to speak due to having a bunch of nails pressed between his lips as he tried aligning a plank so that it would cover the hole properly.

"What are the stairs to adulthood? Auntie Amalia mentioned them. Do you grow up immediately once you climb them?"

Removing the nails from his mouth, Dally merely eyed his son with a knowing smile. "I've kept telling her, there were no stairs anywhere. She never believed me, always thinking that there was some hidden meaning. That's Amalia for you, stubborn as always. Ask Rubi if you need to know. He made the lie up in the first place."

"Okay, will do."

Papa Percedal watched his son trail off, presumedly to find Rubilax. He chuckled amusedly and shrugged. Kids will be kids.

* * *

"Rubi, Rubi!" Elely called out to the sword hanging on the wall, making it open its eye and look down on her in wonder.

"Oh, if it isn't the little Iopette. What's wrong, little one? If it's about borrowing me again, I will have to decline. Your Mom will get angry."

"That's not it, Rubi. Auntie Amalia mentioned the stairs to adulthood. What are they?"

The Shushu blade's eye lit up mischievously as he spoke with an implied grin: "You really ought to ask your mother that, little one. But do me a favor and let me see the scene when you do." He chuckled to himself.

"Alright, then let's go to Mama." Elely held out her hand for Rubi to come to her, which he shortly after did by appearing in her hand in a flash.

"This should be good." He muttered.

* * *

"Mama?" The kids both asked their mother after having found her on the second floor's balcony, hanging up the laundry to dry.

"Yes, my little doves?" She asked them sweetly, still continuing her work while Rubi rested in Elely's hand, chuckling quietly to himself.

"What are the stairs to adulthood?" Flopin asked her curiously, causing the mother Cra's eyes to narrow themselves in realization. She sighed bitterly. That Amalia and her big mouth…

"Well, what do you think it is?" She asked her kids curiously, watching Elely put a finger on her lips, gently tapping it as she thought about it really hard.

"Maybe a stairway that will turn you into an adult once you climb it?" She eyed her mother excitedly shortly after. "If that's it, you gotta tell us where it is! I finally get to fight with Papa once I am grown up, right?"

Eva laughed in mild amusement. "Absolutely not. You two are growing like weeds as you are. If I could, I would make it so that you could never grow up and stay as you are forever."

Flopin frowned, clearly displeased. "But then I can't protect you, Mom."

Eva knelt down to his level and placed a hand on his head, stroking it gently. "Haven't you gotten this quite backwards, Flo-Flo? Mommy and Daddy are here to protect you, not the other way around."

He looked down in disappointment. "But I wanna…"

His mother stood up and shrugged playfully. "Well, all I can say is that you will figure out what the stairway to adulthood is by the time you are about to ascend it. I just hope that it's gonna be a loooong time from now."

"So wait. You meant there is no shortcut to growing up so I can get to brawl with Papa?" Elely asked her confusedly, causing Eva to merely shake her head at her slowly and with a kind smile.

"No, sweet-pea. There is no such thing."

This caused Elely to groan and stomp the ground in frustration. "Super lame!" She yelled, then gasped when her foot sunk into the wooden floor, producing yet another hole for her father to fix later.

"Ah, crap."

"Elely! What the bwork!" She heard her father yell from downstairs in a mixture of disbelief and frustration.

"Sorry, Papa!" The young Iopette cried out embarrassedly. She really hadn't meant to. Her mother could only sigh at her as her hand found its way to her forehead, silently wondering if this house would still be standing by the time this child grew up.

* * *

_**Aaaaaand done! Congrats for making it through it all. If you made it this far, I hope that means that you enjoyed the show. Either that, or your felt the need to proof something. Anyway, thanks for reading. If you ended up enjoying my work, please do feel free to check out The Beauty and her Beast next. If you are even just half as obsessed with that pairing as I am, you will likely love it. (Or at least I hope you will)**_

_**I am also always open for ideas for further Tristeva content, mature or not. If you have a few suggestions, I am all ears.**_

_**And as always, I would always love to hear from you, be it reviews, PMs or my discord. Link: **_discord . gg/EcF823z

**_Anyway, _****_writing this cleansed my soul, so hopefully reading it had a similar effect on you. _****_I think that's it from my side. Cya guys around and remember: Tristeva is love, Tristeva is life! _**


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